Facial Recognition for Cops and Cows: 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:

Hartford Preemptively Puts Guardrails on Police Use of Facial Recognition

Hartford, Connecticut has become the latest municipality to pass restrictions governing how police can use facial recognition. While the Hartford Police Department doesn’t currently use or even possess facial recognition technology, a new law passed by the Hartford City Council aims to protect citizens by ruling out a facial recognition match for use as “probably cause to arrest.” Police can use facial recognition as an investigative tool, but even if it produces a match, they’ll have to investigate further in order to establish grounds for arrest.

NC, Wisconsin Ban TikTok From Government Phones

North Carolina and Wisconsin have become the latest US states to ban TikTok from state devices. Wisconsin governor Tony Evers cited privacy and security risks after signing an executive order to ban the social app from state-issued phones, while North Carolina governor Roy Cooper added both TikTok and WeChat, another China-made social platform, to a list of apps banned from government devices due to an “unacceptable cybersecurity risk”. Twenty other states have taken similar measures.

Indian Banks Use Face, Iris Biometric to Verify Large Transactions

A small group of banks in India have been using iris and facial recognition scans to verify transactions that exceed the government-set limit of 2 million rupees, according to a report from Reuters. Citing multiple unnamed sources, the report says that the biometric scans are used to verify bank customers’ identities via the Aadhaar national ID system, in a practice that the Indian government has quietly approved without having made a public announcement about the matter.

Partnership to Bring Biometric Payments to Toshiba Tech

Biometric payments startup PopID has established a partnership with Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions that will see its PopPay solution integrated into the latter’s Point-of-Sale and self-service solutions running its ELERA Commerce Platform. The end result will be payment solutions enabling customers to perform transactions with a face scan, and without the need to present a payment card, cash, or any other hardware token. The company will show off a prototype system based on the Toshiba Pro-X Hybrid Kiosk at next week’s NRF 2023 retail convention in New York.

Korean FinTech Leverages FacePhi’s Selfie Onboarding Solution

PeopleFund, a Korean startup that offers a peer-to-peer lending platform, has implemented selfie-based identity verification, care of FacePhi. When registering for the platform and applying for a loan, PeopleFund customers can now verify themselves by uploading a selfie photo, which FacePhi’s technology matches against their official ID using facial recognition technology. The solution improves the user experience, guards against fraud, and helps PeopleFund to ensure compliance with Korea’s P2P Financing Act.

Simunix Applies Trust Stamp Tech to Identity Data Services

Trust Stamp’s biometric technology is now being used by Simunix, a UK-based provider of identity data services. More specifically, Trust Stamp tech has been added to Simunix’s Age Verify and T2A identity and address verification solutions. In a statement, Colin Frith, Simunix’s Head of Business Development, explained that the integration of Trust Stamp’s “OCR and biometric technology to our existing data solution will result in a more robust verification service offering for our customers.”

NEXT Biometrics Offers ARR Forecast From Latest Deals

NEXT Biometrics’ latest design wins – a trio delivered in the fourth quarter of 2022 – will not have a significant impact on the company’s revenues in 2023, but are expected to deliver about $400,000 per year in recurring revenues once the reach the mass production phase, the company has revealed. The disclosure comes by way of a 2022 overview, with NEXT asserting that it had established 12 new customer agreements during the year, bringing its total number of customer products to 36.

Face Scanning Til the Cows Come Home

Z Ware, an Australian startup, is pitching a facial recognition system for cows as a means of fighting the widespread problem of cattle theft. According to founder and CEO Phillip Zada, the Stoktake solution has an accuracy rate of over 99 percent based on the 500 cow images on which it has been tested so far, and Z Ware is planning to expand testing to a further 150,000 images. PwC has estimated that cattle rustling costs over $105 million annually, so it’s an important problem to solve; in addition to cows, Zada has been meeting with police, farmers, and other stakeholders about his company’s solution.

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January 13, 2022 – by Alex Perala

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