Biometric identity verification and credentials transforming, just in time

Identity verification is changing, with biometrics and credentials converging in a way that allows them to be used in new ways, as seen in Biometric Update’s top stories of the week. Biometrics from Amadeus are enabling Indonesian travelers to pass through airport ID checks without showing their passports or even breaking stride. Business registration rules are mandating more ID verification in the UK. Liveness detection is increasingly crucial not just to catch fraud attacks with stolen or synthetic identities and deepfakes, but to tell people apart from AI agents representing them – or posing as them. In this context, the arrival of technologies like reusable IDs is setting the stage for explosive market growth.

Biometric IDV, evolved

The global market for digital identity verification will be worth $18.2 billion by 2027, according to the 2025 Digital Identity Verification Market Report & Buyers Guide, released this week. The latest in Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence’s series of collaborative reports forecasts highlights the change in identity verification as reusable IDs are adopted and IDV processes are applied in more markets beyond the traditional KYC for financial services.

Even companies need identity verification, and in the UK, it’s mandatory as of this week, with Companies House introducing new rules for company directors and people with significant control. The goal is to cut down on financial crime and improve AML controls.

Identity verification in the aviation industry has typically taken place by funneling people toward officials with physical barriers for manual examination of ID documents like passports. But IATA says adopting biometric digital IDs instead could save millions in capital expenditures, plus more in annual operation savings while reducing their carbon footprints.

Indeed, this is already happening, and Jeff Lennon of Amadeus tells Biometric Update in an interview that pre-registration and “known traveler” processes like those Indonesia put in place for Hajj pilgrims will enable on-the-move IDV at scale. The Seamless Corridors Amadeus has deployed at Jakarta and Surabaya airports capture biometrics on the move, verifying travelers’ identities without asking them to produce a passport.

Incode is aiming to raise as much as $300 million, at a valuation of $3 billion, fresh off its acquisition of AuthenticID and a step towards qualifying for biometric identity verification contracts with the U.S. government.

Login.gov Director Hanna Kim has departed for the private sector, Nextgov/FCW reports, having overseen the introduction of face biometrics for IAL2-compliant identity proofing. Matt Pritchard moves from the deputy role to acting director.

National ID choices

Myanmar held tests integration tests this week as it works towards the adoption of a national digital ID system based on MOSIP. Officials from the country have held talks with counterparts from India on how to build a system that will enhance public service delivery.

Executives with Yoti and OneID appealed to the UK government to preserve the healthy competitive ecosystem created by the DIATF at a recent Westminster eForum policy conference. The alternative is submarining its own stated goals by undoing past work and investment, the argue.  Views and evidence on how digital ID can and should work in the UK are starting to accumulate, between contribution at that event by the UK business community and at a Parliamentary Home Affairs Committee meeting by civil society groups like Big Brother Watch, the Tony Blair Institute and the Open Rights Group. Perhaps earlier engagement would have prevented already-soft public support from tanking.

A new report and accompanying webinar shed light on the governance of, vendors behind, and human rights implications of “Biometrics and digital identification systems in Africa.” The report, supported by the Atlantic Council’s Democracy + Tech Initiative, provided several concrete suggestions for how policies and procedures can be improved.

Surveillance and liberties

A mobile license late reader app allows U.S. immigration enforcement officers to query vehicle history and ownership records and related personal data compiled from across the country. Motorola and Thomson Reuters supply technologies behind ICE’s latest surveillance capability.

A Digital Omnibus package of amendments introduced by the European Commission will mean major changes to the AI Act, including delays, even as officials in the EU’s biggest countries suggest postponing it. The amendments could also weaken Europe’s privacy laws, including GDPR.

The balance between preserving the free speech rights enshrined in the U.S. Constitution and the benefit of preventing children from accessing pornography online with age assurance technology is examined based on Google Trends data in a paper by non-partisan thinktank the Phoenix Center.

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Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  identity verification  |  week in review