ID Tech Digest – September 26, 2024

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:

Identity Industry Shrugs Off the Politics in Cautiously Optimistic SIA Survey

A new report from the Security Industry Association shows cautious optimism in the biometrics and identity management industry as it enters the final quarter of 2024. While 71 percent of respondents report favorable business conditions, delayed U.S. government budget approvals have affected research and development, sales, and production. Despite political uncertainties and concerns about international conflicts diverting funds from biometric security projects, many companies expect conditions to improve significantly. Over the next three months, 77 percent anticipate increased sales, and nearly 65 percent plan to hire more employees or extend working hours. The overall outlook remains positive, with expectations for growth in sales, employment, and investments in areas like R&D and marketing.

Scottish Government Seeks Gov.UK One Login Interoperability for Digital ID System

The Scottish government is expanding its ScotAccount digital identity system to more public services and is exploring interoperability with the UK’s Gov.UK One Login system. ScotAccount allows users to save verified personal information for reuse across different services, enhancing efficiency for both citizens and service providers. Officials are also exploring new ways to verify identity and improve secure communication between public services and citizens, including accommodating those with limited digital access or alternative identification methods.

FBI Raids Offices of Major Government Contractor Carahsoft

The FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service have raided the headquarters of Carahsoft Technology Corp., a major IT and cybersecurity provider to U.S. government agencies. While not a biometrics company itself, Carahsoft partners with vendors involved in biometrics and digital identity solutions, such as Microsoft, Oracle, and AWS. The raid is part of a Department of Justice investigation into potential price-fixing and violations of the False Claims Act related to software and services sold to government agencies. This could have significant implications for government procurement practices, including projects involving biometric and identity management technologies.

Two of Five IDV Vendors Show No Bias in Equity-focused GSA Study

A General Services Administration (GSA) study evaluated five commercial remote identity verification (RIdV) systems and found mixed results regarding demographic bias. Two of the five systems demonstrated equitable performance with no significant differences across age, gender, race, or skin tone. However, three systems showed disparities, particularly higher false negative rates for Black/African American individuals and those with darker skin tones. One system performed better for Asian American and Pacific Islander individuals, raising concerns about uneven performance across demographics. The study involved 3,991 participants and assessed the full end-to-end process, including user interfaces and liveness detection.

eu-LISA Extends Deadline for AI Industry Roundtable

eu-LISA has extended the deadline for submitting proposals to its Industry Roundtable to October 7, 2024, due to high demand. The event, scheduled for November 12-13 in Budapest, will focus on artificial intelligence applications in the public sector, including biometric-based identity fraud detection. Companies are encouraged to propose innovative solutions that address challenges in biometric recognition and identity fraud prevention within the Justice and Home Affairs domain. Proposals will be evaluated on relevance, innovation, and quality, with top submissions selected for presentation. The roundtable will also discuss the implications of the EU’s new AI Act on high-risk areas like security and migration.

Corsight Beefs Up ‘Safe City’ Security, Extends Retail Presence

Corsight AI has enhanced the security infrastructure of Santa Rosa, Philippines, by upgrading its facial recognition technology. The new capabilities allow detection of suspicious events even when individuals are unknown to the system. The technology analyzes patterns in event frequency and duration to flag anomalies. City officials praised its accuracy and reliability under challenging conditions like poor video quality and limited camera angles. Corsight is also expanding into retail environments through a partnership with RaptorVision. The collaboration enables retailers to identify and track persons of interest using existing CCTV feeds, strengthening security and loss prevention without manual implementation of new tools.

IDVerse’s Face Access System Offers 99.998% Accuracy for Customer Authentication

IDVerse has launched Face Access, a new authentication system offering real-time face matching and liveness detection for businesses. The technology achieves 99.998 percent accuracy and employs IDVerse’s Deepfake Defender to detect deepfakes and spoofing attacks. Face Access operates in milliseconds, allowing secure user reauthentication without relying on methods like OTPs or security questions. The solution is aimed at applications such as passwordless login, account recovery, payment verification, and bot detection. It is powered by AWS and does not store face images, helping to ensure customer data safety and compliance with privacy regulations. IDVerse, formerly known as OCR Labs, emphasizes “Zero Bias AI” to provide consistent accuracy across different demographic groups.

Worldcoin Further Extends World ID’s Global Reach Amid Regulatory Scrutiny

Worldcoin is expanding its World ID services to Guatemala and Malaysia after a recent launch in Poland. The expansion addresses the demand for technologies that can differentiate humans from AI bots online. Worldcoin has introduced new privacy-focused features, including Face Authentication (Face Auth), to enhance security for users of the World App. However, the company is facing regulatory scrutiny over its collection of biometric data through iris scans. South Korea has just fined the company $830,000 for privacy law violations, including failure to provide consent forms in Korean.

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September 26, 2024 — by Tony Bitzionis and Alex Perala