Biometrics providers race to meet demand as ID, age verification expand

Biometric identity verification is evolving to serve an ever-wider range of interactions as they change to address fraud, online safety and border security concerns, as seen in the top articles of the week on Biometric Update. Fortunately, as age verification comes to social media and biometric traveler verification takes off, the biometric foundations of national ID systems are getting upgrades and reusable digital identity is emerging as a real option for everyday uses.

Identity verification and public services

The U.S. Department of Education has blocked $1 billion in federal student aid applications that failed fraud risk assessments after it introduced enhanced identity verification requirements. As the system evolves, however, the Department faces the tension between supporting a program designed for broad accessibility and the more stringent practices of the private sector.

Incode will supply face biometrics for America’s SSO system for public access to government websites, Login.gov under a $37.4 million contract won by its partner Diamond Capture Associates. The contract is one in a group intended to strengthen Login.gov’s identity verification.

The citizen registration offices that issue Germany’s eID card to foreign EEA residents do not have the ability to carry out strong ID verification. This means criminals can purchase the non-biometric ID cards, which can be used for remote identity verification. Many of the 47,000 IDs issued so far are allegedly fraudulent.

Traveler, age verification and reusable ID converging

On its way through the UK House of Lords, the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill has picked up amendments that would require social media companies to implement age checks to keep kids under 16 off of their platforms. VPNs would have to use age assurance to restrict their use to those 18 and older, among other proposals.

Across the Atlantic, big tech lobbyists are arguing age assurance rules violate the First Amendment. Louisiana’s law requiring age checks for social media is blocked, and the race is on to stop Texas’ incoming age checks for app stores, scheduled to take effect January 1st.

Socure has aligned with OpenAge in the emerging market age verification market, which also welcomes support from Meta. Reusable age checks seem poised to gather momentum as adoption of reusable digital identity for IDV more generally picks up.

OpenAge says the Socure partnership builds on one with SpruceID, which is participating in the SEC’s Roundtable on Financial Surveillance and Privacy. The company explains in a blog post how its vision for user-controlled, reusable digital identity like the best mDLs can protect user privacy while guarding against financial fraud.

On that front, NIST’s NCCoE held an online presentation on how relying parties can use mobile driver’s licenses. Financial services are the first mDL use case for NIST, and the agency announced government credential services are its second.

The Clear Mobile App now stores Clear IDs derived from U.S. passports for identity verification at more than 250 TSA checkpoints. The same approach to protecting against fraud with biometrics and easing IDV with reusability is showing up everywhere, with Clear’s CEO mentioning enterprise as another opportunity.

National IDV upgrades

Malaysia is racing to scale its MyDigital ID system, hoping to integrate 95 percent of federal government services with the platform by 2030 in part to ease service access with digital identity verification. Passport applications, wedding registrations and death certificates are among the next services slated for integration.

Indonesia is preparing to run a tender to integrate its two ABISs, one currently supplied by Totm, into a single system with the goals of a stronger civil registry and increased digital ID adoption. The World Bank-supported project will continue to use face biometrics as the modality of choice for identity verification.

Identity verification is also the use case for matching the fingerprint biometrics of children (or anyone else) after 5 to 10 years, as in the UIDAI’s recent benchmarking challenge. Neurotechnology won the Indian ID regulators’ competition, followed closely by Innovatrics.

Citizenship verification and process legality verification

The paperwork behind ICE’s use of CBP’s Mobile Fortify app to collect face and fingerprint biometrics in the field appears to be incomplete. A joint Privacy Threshold Analysis that ICE says is sufficient to meet its obligations without a Privacy Impact Assessment states that the agency must perform a PIA and a System of Records Notice.

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Article Topics

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