China's Deepfake Crackdown and Miami's Biometric Airport

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

Home Office Seeks Members for Biometric Ethics Group

The United Kingdom Home Office is looking for six new appointees for its Biometrics and Forensics Ethics Group (BFEG). In particular, the Home Office wants individuals with experience in the following areas: the law, social sciences, data ethics, artificial intelligence, medical ethics, and biometrics. All appointments will be for a three-year term, with the application deadline set for September 11, 2023. The request for candidates comes immediately following the announcement of the pending resignation of the country’s Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, whose office is set to be subsumed under the Investigatory Powers Commissioner once parliament approves the Data Protection and Digital Information Bill.

China Cracks Down On Deepfake Scams

Law enforcement authorities in China are cracking down on scams involving the use of deepfake technology. According to a report from China Daily (which is owned by the propaganda arm of the Chinese Communist Party), agencies including the Bureau of Network Security Protection have been assessing the vulnerabilities of various facial authentication systems operated by business, and asking those organizations to make upgrades as needed. They have also arrested over 500 suspects in cases of “AI face alteration”. The news conveniently arrives in the same week that China’s Cyberspace Administration unveiled proposed regulatory guardrails for the use of facial recognition in the country.

Lensa App Maker’s BIPA Lawsuit Sent to Arbitration

A privacy lawsuit filed against Prisma Labs under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) is moving to arbitration. Prisma Labs’s Lensa app briefly went viral last year thanks to excitement about its capability of turning users’ selfie photos into “magic avatars”, but the company was later accused of violating BIPA by failing to provide the proper disclosures about its handling of biometric data. District Judge Charles R. Breyer has agreed with Prisma’s argument that its terms of use require any disputes to be settled through arbitration, and not in a courtroom.

Sentry Enterprises Acquires X-Core Technologies

Sentry Enterprises has completed its acquisition of X-Core Technologies, which specializes in sophisticated lamination technology for electronic cards, such as access control cards. Sentry, which itself has developed a fingerprint-scanning card solution in its efforts to build a comprehensive identity platform, had previously invested $13 million in X-Core’s Series D funding round. The merger was completed via an all-equity transaction at an undisclosed valuation. X-Core will remain situated in West Chester, Pennsylvania, operating under the X-Core brand name as part of the overarching Sentry Enterprises company.

ROC.ai’s Tenprint Algorithm Makes Top-Three in NIST Testing

Rank One Computing’s tenprint fingerprint segmentation algorithm has attained a third-place ranking against the latest benchmarks from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It has also secured the top ranking domestically in the United States. In announcing the achievement, ROC.ai suggested that its performance hints at the capabilities of its forthcoming upgrades to its software development kit solution and its live video analytics platform, ROC Watch. The company recently named biometrics industry veteran Benji Hutchinson as its new Chief Revenue Officer.

PRIVO Teams With Atomic Biometrics On Parental Consent Registry

Privacy Vaults Online (PRIVO) and Atomic Biometrics have partnered to build a biometric “parent registry” for use in granting consent on behalf of their children online, such as for accessing age-restricted computer games. Atomic Biometrics offers a fingerprint and iris-scanning kiosk, which PRIVO will use to register interested parents once a decade, allowing them to verify that they are their kids’ actual guardians without having to share personal information in any online sessions thereafter. The companies say they have “agreed to share their patented technologies” in order to fully integrate their solutions.

IDEX Charts Biometric Card Progress in Q2 Update

IDEX Biometrics has issued a Q2 update showing improved performance as the company strives toward commercialization of its IDEX Pay fingerprint-scanning card solution. Revenues came in at about $1.46 million, compared to just over $1.1 million in Q2 of last year. Operating expenses dropped from $9.4 million a year ago to just over $8.8 million in the latest quarter, and IDEX’s net result was a loss of a little over $7.4 million, compared to a net loss of over $9.2 million in Q2 of 2022. Seventeen card manufacturers and resellers have agreed to bring IDEX Pay to market, and the company says it expects to receive a formal Letter of Approval from Mastercard “in the coming weeks.”

FacePhi Renews Key ISO Certifications

FacePhi has announced that it has renewed its certifications against the ISO 27001, ISO 27017, and ISO 22301 standards, attesting to its commitment to adhering to the most stringent international standards. The company also highlighted its certification as an Identity Services Provider (IDSP) under the United Kingdom’s Digital Identity Certification Scheme, and its Foundational Technical Review certification from Amazon Web Services, both of which were attained in the first half of this year.

Miami Airport to Expand Biometric Boarding Program

Administrators at the Miami International Airport have started expanding its use of facial recognition technology to 20 additional departure gates. MIA has long been a hub of biometric innovation, having first deployed facial recognition to process international arrivals in 2018. Last year, it announced the deployment of biometric boarding technology across all of its gates, though officials now believe that project won’t be completed until Q3 of 2024, with the delay attributed in part to supply chain issues. The biometric gates that will now be coming online will be for certain international flights with the Avianca, Copa, LATAM, Turkish Airways, and Emirates airlines, with further deployments in partnership with American Airlines planned for October.

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August 10, 2023 – by Alex Perala