IdTA to Become SIA’s New Identity and Biometric Technology Advisory Board

The Security Industry Association (SIA) is officially absorbing the Identification Technology Association (IdTA). The members of the IdTA will form a new SIA Identity and Biometric Technology Advisory Board to help guide the organization’s biometric advocacy.

The IdTA is currently composed of five member organizations. Of those, IDEMIA and NEC are already SIA members, and will continue to operate as such. The others (CLEAR, Leidos, and Unisys) will become SIA members on January 1. All five organizations will also work to recruit other biometrics businesses that are interested in joining the SIA.

“We are convinced that the mission of SIA strongly aligns with the goals and objectives of IdTA,” said the IdTA Executive Committee. “As the biometric industry continues to mature, the technology is driving innovation in sectors beyond the federal public sector. We see the need to expand our engagement into other private sector markets including critical infrastructure, commercial security and consumer electronics.”

The members of the Identity and Biometric Technology Advisory Board will spearhead a number of different policy and education initiatives. For example, they may participate in networking roundtable discussions with government officials, and/or help develop content for SIA events and SIA’s Security Megatrends report. Identity and Biometric Technology will be one of three advisory boards within the organization, standing alongside the existing Cybersecurity and Data Privacy Advisory Boards.

“SIA is proud to welcome members of the IdTA into the SIA community,” said SIA CEO Don Erickson. “Through the involvement of these notable global businesses on the Identity and Biometric Technology Advisory Board, we are excited to increase SIA’s value proposition for participating companies.”

Joe Hoellerer will serve as the staff liaison for the new Advisory Board. Hoellerer is the senior government relations manager for the SIA.

The SIA recently released a set of policy principles intended to support the ethical use of facial recognition technology. The organization has opposed a blanket ban of facial recognition, but has stressed that biometric solutions should be expected to meet certain quality and performance standards before being rolled out to the public.

Source: Security Sales and Integration

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December 4, 2020 – by Eric Weiss