Illinois Deli Settles a BIPA Suit While Canada Pursues Digital ID: Identity New Digest

Identity News Digest for August 17, 2022

Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:

Mobile ID

Utah is rolling out a mobile driver’s license through in-person registration events with partners, the latest of which is America First Credit Union. But state authorities plan a “next phase” of the MDL program that will let residents enroll remotely using selfie-based biometric onboarding. Read the full story on Mobile ID World.

NIST Guidelines

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is preparing a new “playbook” for AI best practices that is intended as a kind of companion to NIST’s Risk Management Framework. Nextgov reports that the playbook will promote a “socio-technical” approach to AI development, with an emphasis on ensuring that there is a strong human element managing AI systems. The playbook is expected to be published next week.

Executive Appointments

1Password has appointed Steve Won as its new Chief Product Officer. Won comes to the company from a previous position as VP of Product for Shogun, an e-commerce platform provider. Before that, he was Head of Authentication Products for Duo Security from July of 2014 to December of 2020. Won joins the team after 1Password raised $620 million in a high-profile Series C funding round earlier this year that included investments from Robert Downey Jr. and Scarlett Johansson.

BIPA Lawsuits

McAlister’s Deli in Orland Park, Illinois, has settled a Biometric Information Privacy Act lawsuit for $90,000. Employees alleged that the restaurant franchise did not obtain their express written consent for fingerprint scans used to clock in and out. There have been some eyebrow-raising BIPA cases against high-profile companies like Google and Estée Lauder; McAlister’s Deli is one of the many lower-profile companies to be caught in the BIPA dragnet.

Government Biometrics

Government officials in Ghana are finding worrying signs of payroll fraud thanks to a new biometric matching process. Speaking at the Internal Audit Agency Conference in Accra, Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia said that an initial effort to match government employees to individuals to the national ID database found that about 148,000 of 601,000 produced no match. At least some of those who didn’t match may simply not have registered for their Ghana Card yet.

Airport Biometrics

Authorities at the Kempegowda International Airport (BLR Airport) in Bengaluru and at the GMR Hyderabad International Airport have enabled biometric boarding for passengers using the Digi Yatra app. Those who enroll their face biometrics and biographical information using the ID app can board using face-scanning eGates when flying with Vistara Airlines or AirAsia. The announcement comes immediately after Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport enabled biometric boarding with Digi Yatra.

Product Launches

Melissa and ID-Pal have teamed up to offer a turnkey SaaS solution for remote onboarding, dubbed “Melissa ID”. Melissa had previously launched a selfie-based onboarding system called “Melissa KYC” in 2019; but the new solution is being pitched as a combination of ID-Pal’s “biometric, documents and database checks” with Melissa’s “expertise in contact data quality,” as ID-Pal CEO Colum Lyons put it in a statement.

Ambitious, Eh?

The Government of Canada is planning to develop a Digital Identity Program to enable more convenient access to government e-services. Quietly announced in a document laying out the Government of Canada’s “Digital Ambition”, the digital ID program will be recognized as the digital equivalent of a driver’s license or passport so far as identity verification is concerned. Read the full story on Mobile ID World.

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August 17, 2022 – by Alex Perala