Biometrics ease airport and online journeys, national digital ID expansion

Biometrics advances are culminating in new kinds of experiences for crossing international borders and getting through online age gates in some of the top stories of the week on Biometric Update. Specifically, passport-free passage through biometric e-gates in the UK and two major age assurance technology launches made headlines this week. National digital ID systems are maturing too, with Sri Lanka shortlisting five Indian firms to operate its digital identity system and Belgium expanding options for its residents.

Easier crossings for borders and age gates

The days when international flights meant standing in slow-moving lineups of people clutching their passports and accessing pornography online was easy for everyone appear to be coming to an end.

A trial of a biometric e-gate system that allowed travelers in the UK to pass through border control passport-free has is complete. The three-week trial at Manchester is part of a broader overhaul of the UK border control system that includes more biometric gates.

Biometric Update visited SITA’s Experience Center in Singapore, not far from Changi Airport, to see the latest in airport technology and learn more about its work with DTCs. SITA officials shared their vision for passport-free travel, enabled by biometrics, and handling capacity challenges as air traffic increases.

Barriers going up around regulated content online introduce similar challenges to international borders around making processes fast and easy for those allowed to pass. And the similarity extends to the technologies addressing those challenges.

k-ID has introduced the OpenAge initiative and AgeKeys, which use public-key cryptography and device biometrics or a PIN, in the form of a FIDO passkey, for reusable age verification online. Large American tech firms are connected to several seats on OpenAge’s advisory board.

In the other corner, or another corner of the market at least, is AgeAware. Nonprofit euCONSENT’s token-based reusable age assurance system was developed with help from Yoti, AgeChecked and VerifyMy, and went live this week.

National digital ID

Sri Lanka has announced Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Protean e-Gov, RailTel and Bharat Electronics have made its shortlist of system operators for its national digital ID. The country has also amended its Personal Data Protection Act to allow “greater flexibility in cross-border data flows” and allocated more than 35 billion rupees in its 2026 budget to support its broader digitization ambitions.

Two thousand biometric enrollment kits have been distributed to Ethiopian banks, with more on the way, so people can sign up to the Fayda system when opening an account. The national ID will be mandatory to do so by the end of the year, and enrollment at financial institutions is expected to boost Fayda issuance.

Apple Wallet can now store digital credentials derived from U.S. passports, which are accepted by the TSA for domestic flights. The credentials, which Apple calls “Digital ID,” will not have legal equivalence with a physical passport. In the absence of an official national ID, U.S. government-issued digital IDs so far have mostly been mDLs.

Two new papers from the OpenID Foundation set out how U.S. mDLs can serve KYC use cases via the verifiable credentials standard, which would significantly expand the potential for digital ID adoption in America.

Belgium is at a different stage in its own journey, with more than 400,000 people now signed up for MyGov digital IDs, a year and a half after its launch. The digital government services platform provides a public sector alternative to Itsme,

The ADVP has requested a meeting with UK Secretary of State for the Cabinet Office Darren Jones to make sure the government is planning to at least keep the DIATF system that provides private sector alternatives to its own digital ID.

The surveillance wet blanket

Amazon’s plan to introduce the Familiar Faces facial recognition feature to its Ring cameras has sparked pushback from privacy advocates, including EFF. The feature will not be offered in Illinois, Texas, or Portland, Oregon where there are relatively strict regulations around biometric data privacy.

The Homeland Security Information Network is watching over NCAA football games with live video. As DHS’ official system for sharing information with partners, HSIN also offers a form for authorized users to make requests for facial recognition searches from state and local law enforcement partners.

The EU is reportedly considering a draft proposal that would weaken the AI Act and GDPR under pressure from U.S. tech companies and the Trump administration. The “digital omnibus” is expected to be presented next week.

Japan’s national broadcaster NHK profiled the team behind NEC’s facial recognition technology. The Project X: The Challengers – New Beginnings episode features interviews with NEC Fellow Hitoshi Imaoka, Yusuke Morishita and Akihiro Hayasaka.

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Article Topics

biometrics  |  digital ID  |  digital identity  |  facial recognition  |  week in review