Welcome to ID Tech’s digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:
Yoti Pilots Retail Age Estimation with BAT and Channel Islands Co-op
Yoti is testing its facial age estimation at point of sale with British American Tobacco and the Channel Islands Co-operative Society to support sales of age-restricted products. The system gives cashiers a real-time age estimate, green-lighting clearly over-age customers and prompting manual ID checks near the threshold. Yoti stresses a privacy-preserving design that does not identify or retain images, aligning with UK age-assurance pressures and recent improvements to its teen estimation accuracy.
Costa Rica Selects GET Group for National Digital ID
Costa Rica named GET Group, working with state-owned Radiográfica Costarricense, as the technology partner for its government-issued digital ID app. The choice prioritizes speed and proven reliability via a public-private model common to mid-sized nations, while implicitly trading off some local capacity-building and creating vendor lock-in risk. The rollout fits a wider Latin American push toward digitized credentials and cross-border interoperability.
UK Launches Digital Veteran Card in GOV.UK One Login
The UK introduced a digital Veteran Card for nearly two million former service members inside the GOV.UK One Login app, secured by on-device biometrics (Face ID/Touch ID). Officials describe the launch as both a service upgrade and a public “case study” to address privacy and security concerns ahead of a broader national digital ID plan. Data is positioned as federated, with veteran records held by the MoD and a verifiable version stored on users’ devices.
UIDAI Seeks Domestic Liveness and Contactless Tech for Aadhaar
India’s UIDAI issued a call for domestically developed liveness detection and contactless fingerprint capture to harden Aadhaar against deepfakes, injection, and presentation attacks. The initiative marries security upgrades with “Make in India” industrial policy, using Aadhaar’s scale to nurture local champions. It follows recent Aadhaar security and usability moves, including anti-spoofing approvals, broader use cases, and citizen controls like biometric data locking.
GBG Partners with Mattr to Enable mDL Verification in Australia
GBG will add mobile driver’s license checks to Australian identity workflows through a partnership with decentralized identity firm Mattr. Built on Australia’s alignment to ISO 18013-5, the integration supports TDIF goals and contrasts with the fragmented, state-by-state U.S. mDL landscape. The deal reflects a market shift toward orchestrated identity journeys, letting clients adopt new high-assurance credentials without replacing existing platforms.
FIDO Alliance’s Passkey Index Quantifies 30 Percent Conversion Lift
The FIDO Alliance, with Liminal, launched the Passkey Index showing passkeys deliver a 30 percent boost in user conversion and faster sign-ins (13.6s vs 27.5s for passwords). By framing passkeys as a revenue and UX win—not just a security upgrade—the index targets product and finance leaders evaluating passwordless budgets. Momentum continues across platforms and payments, though organizations must avoid insecure fallback paths that can undermine FIDO deployments.
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By the ID Tech Editorial Team