Biometrics inspire trust, policy-makers invite backlash

Biometrics technology appears to be advancing more steadily than the policies and implementation practices that are necessary to make proper use of them, based on several of the top stories this week on Biometric Update. Evaluations of fingerprint biometrics and facial age estimation by NIST show steady improvements in accuracy, and more flexibility is coming available for organizations using fingerprints. But just issuing ID cards as previously committed to is proving difficult in Romania, and age verification in practice is so far working out too often the way its critics said it would.

Part of the challenge is the ever-increasing demands placed on biometric technology, as seen at America’s Southern border.

Biometrics run for the border

DHS has requested information from vendors on biometrics in can use at U.S. borders for identification without slowing the flow of people and goods. A virtual assessment event runs in October for the agency to pick a technology that requires minimal oversight and works in extreme conditions. Facial recognition that identifies all the occupants in moving vehicles are part of the plan.

ICE Homeland Security Investigations, DHS investigative arm, has signed a $9.2 million contract with Clearview AI. The price of HIS’s contracts with the company have increased along with the scope of use for its facial recognition, from child sexual exploitation to assaults on law enforcement officers.

Digital ID ambitions

The digital ID ambitions of the EU and World are bold, the adoption numbers still to come, they hope.

Romania is reducing the number of electronic identity cards it is planning to issue for free by a million and a half following a cut to the project’s budget. It risks fines that eventually in theory could stretch into hundreds of millions of euros for missing the EU’s digital ID targets.

World now gives fans of IDs issued by the private sector, iris biometrics, decentralized systems and blockchain technologies an opportunity to invest in them on the NASDAQ. A group of companies have poured $270 million into investment company Eightco, chaired by analyst Dan Ives, to build a “Worldcoin treasury strategy.”

A network of 15 thousand devices from TokenWorks loaded with mDL identity verification software from Oneproof has rolled out in the U.S. They make it possible to use your mDL at 7,500 business locations, based on ISO/IEC 18013-5 and -7. The STA hailed the deployment as bringing mDLs’ impact to the present. Interest in mDLs is strong in the U.S., where a Thales survey shows 70 percent prefer a government-issued digital ID.

Contactless fingerprint biometrics

Synolo has introduced a top attachment for its contactless fingerprint scanner that converts it to take conventional contact biometrics. CEO Greg Scott and CTO Dr. Steve Saggese explained the market rationale and how it works in an interview with Biometric Update.

Conspicuous amongst recent submissions to NIST’s PFT III is an entry from touchless fingerprint biometrics developer Identy. The U.S.-based company scored higher accuracy than recent submissions from several established contact fingerprint algorithm providers, and says the results represent a significant step for the industry.

Good accuracy and ‘good grief!’

The latest update to NIST’s evaluation of facial age estimation adds algorithms from Youverse, Regula and CyberLink, the latter two with particularly encouraging results. The debut in the application by Regula scored the best MEA across geographies, and compared well in several other measures.

An analysis of supposedly “double blind” age verification provider AgeGO says the company collects and stores information about users and the content they need to use age assurance for. The AVPA points out that the non-compliance with French regulations comes in the context of a complications paying for or trusting double blind age checks.

An analysis of the Online Safety Act by the ITIF cautions that any attempt to protect children from online harms invites backlash if it blocks benign content, or if it isn’t crystal clear about the lines between harmful and legal content.

Content that promotes self-harm is being made illegal in the UK under the OSA, shifting the responsibility of online platforms from age assurance to content moderation. By making the move under the OSA, new UK Tech Secretary Liz Kendall risks strengthening arguments that the government is surreptitiously increasing censorship.

Her predecessor Peter Kyle, having presided over the project so far, now gets to explain it to the American government as Trade Secretary. Domestically, more children than adults consider age checks effective, survey respondents tell Sumsub, but nearly half of UK consumers worry about the OSA leading to censorship.

Place your bets on whether the U.S. southern border or the internet will be tamed first in the comments below or through social media. And as always, please let us know if you see any content we should share with those in biometrics and digital identity.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  week in review