Jamaican Airport Biometrics and ByteDance’s BIPA Suit – Identity News Digest

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

Worldcoin to Offer Businesses Paid Access to Identity Platform

Worldcoin plans to enable third-party access to its digital identity platform as it continues to expand globally. Speaking to Reuters, a senior manager at the web3 startup explained that companies would be able to pay for access to the platform, which would allow them to benefit from its pseudonymous identity verification capabilities. Worldcoin uses iris scanning technology to establish ‘proof of personhood’ for its users. The executive explained that a coffee shop, for example, could use the platform to offer a free coffee to all customers while ensuring that no one tries to get more than one free sample.

Singapore Legislation Would Open Door to Curb-to-Gate Airport Biometrics

Proposed legislation in Singapore would enable end-to-end biometric traveler verification at airports without the need to present physical identity documents. Proposed by Second Minister of Home Affairs Josephine Teo, the bill would permit travelers to present digital versions of documents pertaining to immigration status, and would enable their identity and flight information to be processed using a digital token, which would be tied to a given traveler’s biometric data. The bill is currently slated for a second and third reading before potentially becoming law.

IBM Wins UK Home Office’s Biometric Project Contract

The United Kingdom’s Home Office has awarded a £54.7 million contract to IBM to support its biometric system for law enforcement and immigration services. Fujitsu had been awarded an earlier contract to provide biometric matching technology for the Home Office Biometrics project in 2018, but reports emerged earlier this year that the Home Office was in search of a new vendor after Fujitsu’s contract expired in March. IBM’s work will involve implementing what the Home Office describes as a Matcher Service Platform (MSP) that will support matching functions using fingerprint and face biometrics. The project has a five-year term, with the option to extend an extra three years.

Nigerian Ministerial Nominee Proposes Biometrics for Subsidy Payments

Olawale Edun, currently serving as the Special Adviser on Monetary Policies to President Bola Tinubu, who won the country’s election earlier this year, is advocating for the use of biometric technology in the distribution of financial aid to vulnerable and low-income households. Edun has been nominated to serve as finance minister under the new government, and said he would use the biometric identification system if appointed while addressing the Senate this week. He gestured to India as an example of a country using biometrics for similar purposes.

Jamaican Airport to Pilot Biometric Passenger Processing

Administrators at Jamaica’s Sangster International Airport (SIA) are preparing to launch a biometric passenger processing system according to MBJ Airports Limited CEO Shane Munroe. Speaking at a recent SIA forum, Munroe said biometric check-in, bag drop, and boarding systems will be implemented, starting with a pilot phase for the coming winter season. The executive indicated that a contract for the project has been signed.

ByteDance Faces BIPA Lawsuit Over Video Editing App

ByteDance, the parent company of TikTok, is now facing a proposed class action lawsuit concerning another of its offerings, the video editing app CapCut. The lawsuit alleges that CapCut has violated Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act by collecting sensitive information, including face and voice biometrics, without obtaining end users’ consent, and that it does not provide the disclosures required under BIPA. But the lawsuit goes further than many others filed under BIPA, noting that because ByteDance is headquartered in China, it may be required to share sensitive user data with the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

Paravision Launches ‘Gen 6’ Facial Recognition Platform

Paravision has officially launched its 6th generation facial recognition platform, Paravision Gen 6. The Gen 6 algorithm recently claimed the fourth-place ranking for accuracy in NIST’s Face Recognition Vendor Test for 1:N Identification, and it got the top ranking of all participants based in the US, the UK, and the EU. Paravision says it has achieved a 30 percent reduction in the solution’s error rate since the 5th generation iteration, and that the platform supports optimizations for Nvidia, Intel, and Ambarella chips.

Trust Stamp Grows Financial Services Base, Patent Portfolio

Trust Stamp has seen a 31 percent increase in the number of financial services clients using its ‘Orchestration Platform’ for identity management, bringing the total to 29. In a statement, the company’s President, Andrew Gowasack, said Trust Stamp is aiming to get 45-50 financial institutions in its client base by the end of the year, with “significant long-term usage revenue starting in 2024.” The company has also been awarded a US patent, for a filing titled “Systems and Methods for Privacy-Secured Biometric Identification and Verification”. The is the company’s 16th patent, with 15 other applications pending.

Aware Anticipates ‘Neutral Operating Cashflow’ By 2024

Aware, Inc. has issued an update for the second quarter of 2023, reporting revenues of $3.2 million, compared to $4.2 million in Q2 of 2022. Its net result was a loss of $2.7 million, compared to a net loss of $1.3 million a year ago. But in his commentary on the update, Aware CEO and President Robert Eckel noted that Aware has signed “several significant contracts” during the quarter that were not yet reflected in the company’s revenues, and said that Aware’s management “anticipate exiting the year with neutral operating cashflow.”

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August 2, 2023 – by Alex Perala