Critical Thinking About Biometrics and Identity: This Week’s Top Stories

Generally speaking, biometric technology offers profound potential impacts, and is profoundly complex in its implications. From enabling consumers to lock their phones behind a fingerprint scan, to giving police the ability to potentially identify anyone in a protest, the technology has provoked deep thought and intense debate. It’s a new technological frontier, and we’re still trying to wrap our heads around it, so it’s no surprise that, once in a while, FindBiometrics’ weekly roundup of top stories will be dominated by in-depth thinking and critical discourse about biometrics.

For example, one of the week’s most popular articles concerned a consideration of how biometrics and other technologies can be used to resolve the gap between our identities in the physical and digital worlds while ensuring strong privacy protections. This was a guest post from NEC Corporation of America’s VP of Product Development, Micah Willbrand, who discussed some of the important concepts detailed in the new White Paper, “Bridging the Identity Gap with Digital ID and NEC”:

We Need to Close the Identity Gap – Is Digital ID the Answer?

Another biometrics topic that is the subject of a great deal of thought – indeed, a lot of agonizing – is the question of how to ensure compliance with privacy regulations. Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA) in particular has captured a wide range of organizations in its dragnet with its particularly strict regulatory framework. So industry professionals have been understandably flocking to FindBiometrics’ recent checklist for BIPA compliance:

Identity School: These Seven Questions Can Save You From a Biometrics Privacy Lawsuit

The UK’s Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, meanwhile, has given some careful thought to the privacy rights of his country’s citizens, with respect to a new College of Policing guidance for the use of facial recognition. He got some attention this week by speaking out against a part of the guidance that suggested it was acceptable for police to use facial recognition to identify witnesses to crimes:

UK Commissioner Says Police Shouldn’t Use Facial Recognition to Identify Witnesses

Turning to a biometrics-adjacent space, Thales announced a new White Paper this week that tackles some of the newest changes to the European Union’s eIDAS regulations. The paper is particularly focused on provisions concerning Digital Wallets and digital IDs, which are likely to proliferate in the Union in the coming years:

Thales Discusses Digital Wallets in New eIDAS White Paper

And finally, moving from thought to action: readers showed strong interest in this week’s news that TECH5 has attracted another $10 million from venture capital investors based in Singapore. Money talks. The company’s biometric technology is already being used in multiple national ID programs, and investors seem to have been impressed enough to support the company’s ongoing efforts to develop its portfolio:

TECH5 Brings in Another $10 Million from Singapore Investors

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Keep reading FindBiometrics to learn more about the exciting world of biometrics. You can also visit our sibling site Mobile ID World for the latest news in digital identity.

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April 8, 2022 – by Alex Perala