Biometric and Digital ID Projects Get Going Around the World – Identity News Digest

Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:

Indian State to Link Tax Collection to Aadhaar Next Week

Gujarat is poised to become the first Indian state to begin linking tax collection to Aadhaar, the country’s biometric national ID system. According to a Times of India report, the state’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) department will begin registering the biometrics of taxpayers on November 7. The aim, at least in part, is to fight tax fraud. “In the recent past, a few individuals have claimed that GST registration is done on their name without their knowledge,” an official said. “They claimed that their bank and identity documents were used without informing them.”

UNHCR Continues Biometric Refugee ID Efforts in Niger

The United Nations’ refugee agency, UNHCR, continues to escalate its use of biometric registration to help managing growing populations of displaced persons. According to its latest Operational Update, UNHCR authorities have completed the registration of roughly 162,000 refugees in the Diffa and Madaoua regions of Niger, which continues to see inflows from Nigeria, Mali, and Burkina Faso despite its own coup in July. “A strategy for continuous registration was set up in the event of new arrivals,” the report states.

Whole Foods Completes Biometric Payments Rollout in Massachusetts

Amazon’s palm-scanning payment system, Amazon One, has now been installed in all 32 of its Whole Foods stores in the state of Massachusetts. The company had said in the summer that its aim is to deploy the system to all of its US Whole Foods stores by the end of the year, which could go some way in helping to make biometric payments go mainstream.

Yoti Supports Onboarding for Toronto-Based Lending Platform

Paays, a Toronto-based startup that offers an anti-fraud platform for loan applications, has teamed up with Yoti. The firm will integrate Yoti’s identity verification technology into its Paays ID Verifier solution, which is aimed specifically at car dealers and lenders. While Yoti’s own platform supports the use of facial recognition to match an end user’s selfie to their official ID, a statement announcing its partnership with Paays focused on identity verification technology that “confirms the authenticity of identity documents, ensuring every customer account is genuine and accurate.”

Kenya Begins Pilot of New Digital ID

The Kenyan government has begun issuing new ID cards that can be converted into digital IDs, just a couple of months after officially unveiling plans for a connected “Maisha Number” that will give citizens a unique digital identifier tied to their IDs. The new Maisha card contains an embedded chip to store encrypted data, and allows users to set up a “Maisha Digital ID” on their smartphones. The rollout represents a pilot test of the new ID program, with the country’s Permanent Secretary for Immigration and Citizen Services, Julius Bitok, anticipating valuable feedback ahead of a wider rollout.

NEXT Adds Trio of Execs to Boost Growth Efforts

NEXT Biometrics has announced three important changes to its executive team. Marcus Laurén, a former Fingerprint Card executive, is the company’s new Chief Product Officer. Joshua Chiu, the former President of Egis Technology China, is NEXT’s new SVP and Head of Sales for South-East Asia. And NEXT Biometrics’ Vice President and Country Manager for India, Digvijay Singh Kanwar, has been promoted to the role of SVP and Head of Sales for India. The announcements come after important business developments for NEXT in the Indian market at the end of summer, and in the wake of a private placement valued at $5.5 million.

Yubico Joins EU Digital Wallet Pilot

Yubico has joined one of the European Union’s four large-scale pilot programs related to the proposed EU Digital Identity (EUDI) wallet. In a blog post, the company explained that an “associate partner” invited it to participate in the EWC, a pilot led by a group of Swedish government agencies and featuring the Finnish Ministry of Finance in a coordinator role. Yubico will support efforts to develop a wallet that enables shared control among multiple parties, referred to as an “organizational wallet”. A demo video of the solution shows how a passkey for the digital wallet can be stored in one of Yubico’s USB keys.

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November 3, 2023 – by Alex Perala