London’s Mayor Is Worried About the Eurostar – 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:

London Mayor Asks MPs to Help Eurostar Ahead of Biometric Border ‘Chaos’

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has called on British ministers to support HS1, the operator of the Eurostar rail line linking the United Kingdom and France, to ensure it will be able to accommodate the European Union’s incoming biometric entry-exit rules. HS1 had warned last week that the biometric border screening rules may cause bottlenecks and compel it to reduce services. Khan wants to avoid that. “The success of the Eurostar is a vital part of London’s and the UK’s economic success,” he said. “As it stands these new post-Brexit checks will cause chaos.”

FRT Has Led to 45 Arrests in Croydon: Met Police

The UK’s Met Police have now made 45 arrests in the borough of Croydon thanks to scheduled public deployments of live facial recognition technology, according to its borough commander, Andy Brittain. Speaking to the BBC, Brittain said the technology has outperformed the Met’s minimum false-positive identification rate of one in 6,000. “We know we’re not getting the false activations – we’ve had one in the whole time and that was someone who was an identical twin to somebody who was wanted,” he said.

Hong Kong Lawmakers Want More Info on CCTV Plan

Lawmakers in Hong Kong are asking for more information about a police effort to install 2,000 surveillance cameras around the city-state by the end of the year. Concerns include the possibility of implementing facial recognition in the surveillance system, a possibility that the Hong Kong police force has not ruled out. Hong Kong’s Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data has previously issued guidelines emphasizing that face-based surveillance “must be supported by strong justification as the use of CCTV to enable automatic identification and tracking of individuals captured on CCTV footage is not normally expected by the public.”

Sri Lankan Official Warns About Giving Sensitive ID Data to Indian Vendor

A government official in Sri Lanka is warning against offering a foreign company the tender to develop a biometric ID program for the country. FSP Education Secretary Pubudu Jayagoda is concerned about an agreement with India, which has offered 450 million Indian rupees for the development of Sri Lanka’s “Unitary Digital Identity Framework”. In return, the Sri Lankan government established a Memorandum of Understanding with two Indian companies that later failed to meet baseline criteria for the project. “Now tenders will be called again,” Jayagoda explained. “No matter what Indian company wins, this will give access to invaluable data to a foreign state. This is a great threat to national security.”

FCC Beefs Up Data Breach Disclosure Rules

The Federal Communications Commission is implementing new rules requiring telecoms and voice-over-IP providers to disclose data breaches within seven days of their discovery. That means reporting to the FCC and to the FBI and Secret Service. Telecoms and VoIP providers will also need to notify customers within 30 days of discovering the data breaches, unless law enforcement authorities ask them to delay notifications. The new rule comes 16 years after the FCC last updated its data breach policies.

Philippines Government Extends Pension Service Overseas

The Philippines’ Government Service Insurance System has extended access to its mobile app, GSIS Touch, to pensioners living abroad in the United States and Singapore. The app’s use of biometric technology plays a critical role in facilitating its reach: It uses facial recognition technology to ask for proof of life, a transaction dubbed “Annual Pensioners Information Revalidation”. Officials at GSIS say they are now working to make the app available in additional regions including Europe, the Middle East, and Canada.

ROC.ai Working to Bring More Facial Recognition to More Schools

ROC.ai is expanding the reach of its facial recognition technology for school security in West Virginia. Speaking to The State Journal, CEO Scott Swann said his firm’s technology has been deployed in 46 schools across four county school systems, and suggested that negotiations are underway to bring the technology into a fifth county. ROC.ai’s solution is designed to scan for potentially dangerous individuals seeking access to school premises, and to immediately alert authorities. The company’s facial recognition technology is also used in Yoti’s digital identity platform, and ROC.ai expanded its portfolio into iris recognition last year.

Coca Announces Crypto Card Rollout

Dubai-based Coca has announced the “initial rollout” of its crypto payment card. Its eponymous solution is a “non-custodial debit card”, meaning the user alone is responsible for storing the private keys needed to access their crypto funds. That having been said, the Coca card has a “3FA recovery feature” meant to ensure that users are always able to retrieve their crypto. According to Coca’s website, this 3FA recovery process is based on “your email, 3D FaceLock, and our distinct recovery file.” The Coca card is currently available in the UK and the European Economic Area.

TOTM’s InterBio Gets More Business in Indonesia

TOTM Technologies’ wholly-owned subsidiary InterBio has won additional contracts from the Indonesian government, totalling $7.5 million. The bulk of the award, which was signed by the Ministry of Home Affairs, concerns technical support and maintenance for the country’s national ID system. Last year, InterBio charged $1.3 million for this service from September to December. It’s now getting $600,000 for maintaining the service in January of 2024, and $6.5 million to carry support through the duration of 2024. Meanwhile, the Indonesian government will pay about $470,000 for the issuance of “2 million additional Automated Biometric Identification System (ABIS) licenses”, according to a statement from TOTM.

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February 12, 2024 – by Alex Perala