Biometrics’ growing role in daily life necessitates liveness detection upgrades

Biometrics policy collides with liveness detection and facial recognition in the weeks top headlines on Biometric Update, as digital services and surveillance become the norm in more countries. Examples in the news range from ICE’s action in the U.S. to public service delivery to the still-growing wave of age assurance, the most popular method of which combines face biometrics with liveness detection as well.

Immigration and law enforcement

NEC is the facial recognition supplier for ICE’s Mobile Fortify app. The company was revealed as the provider of the biometric technology behind the app as part of DHS’ 2025 AI Use Case Inventory. A second disclosure shows that DHS does not treat facial recognition systems as commercial AI, but rather as bespoke government capabilities subject to lower transparency requirements.

A lawsuit alleges ICE is using facial recognition on children. A DHS policy recognizes that the technology must not be used as a sole basis for enforcement action in a directive which has mysteriously disappeared from the agency’s website, but the agency says the public is not allowed to know what’s allowed.

The UK government is investing hundreds of millions of pounds to expand law enforcement facial recognition capabilities. A white paper from Home Office describes a plan to acquire 40 more vans to deploy live facial recognition on demand, to establish a National Policing Service and a National Centre for AI in Policing.

Age checks

VPN use in the UK may soon be subject to an age restriction, expanding the age assurance market. Then again, an amendment to introduce the restriction passed the House of Lords without broad support from Labour, so may be doomed in the Commons. Meanwhile one of the UK’s leading champions of online child safety has called out Ofcom for “timid” implementation of the OSA.

Aylo blames the OSA for cratering its UK traffic, and says enforcement is pushing porn site visitors to unethical and non-compliant sites, so it will block all UK users. The problem is not Ofcom, but the law, the porn giant argues, suggesting that blocking VPNs is “nonsensical” when device-level controls will do the job.

Yoti is the first face biometrics provider to pass a Level 3 assessment of its PAD technology from iBeta. CEO Robin Tombs tells Biometric Update in an interview that the company was motivated to rebuild its liveness detection technology with a new architecture to make it robust against highly sophisticated presentation attacks.

The U.S. FTC convened a workshop this week to examine the intersection between age assurance and COPPA, legislation from 2000 that sets the rules for children’s online safety in America. Representatives from the AVPA, Persona, Yoti and other market players showed the range of viable tools available to do more. The implications of age verification and facial age estimation for the internet, where one-third of users are underage, were explored as both a practical necessity and a moral imperative.

Stakeholders tend to have perspectives informed by ideological positions or obvious self-interest. America’s tech titans and their lobbyists are no different, appealing to their algorithmic prowess, the ease of having others do it, protections already in place and even to Swine Tech to make their cases.

National ID

Aadhaar can now be used for biometric liveness checks, age verification and data sharing with selective disclosure with the release of a new app by the UIDAI. India’s digital ID will also be able to issue verifiable credentials to Google Wallet within weeks.

Netherlands-based Solvinity, which provides cloud infrastructure for the Dutch national digital ID, DigiD, is in talks to sell to U.S.-based Kyndryl. But the country’s Parliament is pushing the government to block the deal or cut Solvinity from the system, citing tensions with its ostensive NATO ally.

Thales North America VP of Identity and Biometrics Solutions Tyson Moler shares insights into how the North Americans public views trust in digital identity from a company survey and explores the implications for adoption in a guest post.

Indonesia’s ID and civil registration authority is seeking passive liveness detection technology for integration with its IKD platform. Ditjen Dukcapil wants a secure remote onboarding process for more than 16 million people to help modernize public service delivery.

Elsewhere, in consumer applications and healthcare

Palm biometrics have been pushing for traction in retail for several years, with support from some big names in shopping. But Amazon One’s discontinuation of the service by early June due to tepid consumer adoption removes one of the biggest.

Omdia Senior Analyst for Smartphones and Connected Devices Runar Bjorhovde tells Biometric Update that smartphone biometrics is still awaiting its “Intel Inside” moment, in which consumers connected with the importance of a particular technology. Biometrics providers need to step up their marketing as foldable phones bring a vanishingly rare hardware innovation to the landscape. Next Biometrics and partner Giantplus are betting on “anywhere-on-display” fingerprints, and Techsponential Lead Analyst Avi Greengart says security is prized enough to motivate consumers.

Imprivata Chief Medical Officer Dr. Sean Kelly made the case for the importance of passwordless technology in the healthcare sector in the January 23 episode of the Biometric Update Podcast.

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Article Topics

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