The Identity Gap Reaches Across This Week’s Top Biometrics Stories

There’s a range of topics covered in this week’s roundup of FindBiometrics’ top stories, but if there is one especially prominent theme, it’s about using digital identity to empower individual end users.

This can be seen in Onfido’s effort to help Ukrainians struggling with the impact of the Russian invasion. The company announced this week that it is allowing Global Giving’s Ukraine Crisis Relief Fund to use its biometric onboarding platform for free in order to verify the identities of those to whom it’s giving aid, and that it is waiving fees for use of its platform for all Ukrainian clients during the conflict:

Onfido Offers Free Identity Services to Support Ukraine

And in a lower-stakes example, this week also brought news from IDEMIA concerning its role in enabling the functionality of Apple’s new mobile ID platform. The Transportation Security Administration is using IDEMIA readers to scan iPhone users’ mobile credentials at the airport, helping to facilitate a digital ID process that allows border authorities to verify travelers’ identities while protecting their privacy:

TSA’s Apple Mobile ID Readers Leverage IDEMIA Tech

On that note, NEC is offering a more generalized illustration of how biometrics can be used to these same ends, not only in airport settings but in the office, the DMV, and elsewhere. The company has published a new white paper entitled “Bridging the Identity Gap,” which details how a hybrid centralized/decentralized approach to identity can effectively bridge the disconnect between our physical and digital identities:

NEC Demonstrates How to Bridge the Identity Gap in New White Paper

This is an issue that touches on a wide range of other topics in the broader biometrics discourse, and this is reflected in the various interviews FindBiometrics conducted at the recent ISC West event in Las Vegas. Naturally, readers have shown a strong interest in a post gathering up links to all of those interviews in one handy list:

ID Talk at ISC West 2022: Hear the Identity Experts at Security’s Biggest Show [UPDATED]

And finally, this week brought more news from the biometric surveillance frontier. The Technology and Innovation Commission of Long Beach, California, has published a report asking the city to put its use of facial recognition on hold until the full impact of the practice’s ramifications can be properly understood. It isn’t quite asking for a permanent ban, but for the creation of a framework for evaluating the operation of such biometric systems:

Long Beach Commission Pushes for Facial Recognition Moratorium

*

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.

–

April 2, 2022 – by Alex Perala