Monkeying Around With Philippines’ Faulty SIM Registration Program – 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:

Philippines Senator Calls for Facial Recognition in SIM Registration

The Philippines’ National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) says it fraudulently registered a SIM card using a fake health card with a picture of a monkey standing in for the cardholder. It was part of the NBI’s investigation into why mobile-based scams have continued despite legislation mandating SIM registration. After learning of the NBI’s disclosure in a hearing of the Committee on Public Services, Senator Grace Poe, who spearheaded the SIM legislation, suggested that it must be revised to require the use of facial recognition.

PA Health Network Plans Biometric Check-In for New Clinic

Administrators with the Allegheny Health Network in Pittsburgh plan to implement a biometric check-in system in a new neurology facility planned for the Allegheny General Hospital campus. As CBS reports, the new AHN Neuroscience Center will feature “facial recognition check-in” as well as way-finding technology and virtual examination rooms. Construction is underway, with managers expecting the facility to open near the end of 2024.

Clearview AI Reaches BIPA Settlement, Negotiates With Australian Police

Clearview AI appears to have reached a settlement in a class action lawsuit filed against the company under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The controversial company was an obvious contender for a BIPA suit, thanks to its trawling of publicly available images on the internet for a facial recognition platform offered to various police agencies. But a new filing indicates that the company and its plaintiffs have reached a “Settlement Framework Agreement”, asking the court to “suspend all discovery” and deadlines so that the proper paperwork can be filled out. A monetary figure has not been named in the proposed settlement.

On the other side of the world, Clearview AI has been meeting with Australian Federal Police officials to discuss the potential use of its platform to stop child exploitation. While the country’s privacy commissioner had determined that police use of Clearview AI violated the country’s privacy laws in 2021, freedom of information requests have revealed that Clearview has been in negotiations with AFP’s Centre to Counter Child Exploitation regarding meeting with an academic who was working on facial recognition regulations. At least one politician, NSW Greens Senator David Shoebridge, has expressed displeasure about the meetings in the wake of the privacy commissioner’s 2021 decision.

IDEMIA’s MorphoWave Comes to Another Campus

Administrators at Boston University have deployed IDEMIA’s MorphoWave scanner at the school’s dining halls, allowing students who register to get access to the facilities with a wave of the hand, rather than by swiping a student card. The MorphoWave is a contactless fingerprint scanner, and has seen similar deployments at other schools, including Western Michigan University earlier this year. Registration is optional, and a BU spokesperson reassured students that no fingerprints are stored after the initial biometric registration, and that the biometric template “cannot be reverse engineered in any way”.

Yaelink Brings Facial, Voice Recognition to Microsoft Teams Rooms

Video conferencing and communications specialist Yaelink has announced a new, 3rd-Gen MVC Series Microsoft Teams Rooms System, a collaboration with Microsoft to bring AI technologies into the latter’s video conferencing platform. These technologies include voice and facial recognition, which are used to display the names of known participants on video calls, as well as the integration of Copilot, Microsoft’s AI chatbot assistant. Yaelink says it plans to develop even more “advanced facial perspectives” to bring to platform in the next two years, according to a UC Today report.

FPC Establishes Access, IoT Partnership With Indian Startup

Fingerprint Cards has partnered with Cionlabs, an India-based IoT engineering startup. The agreement will see Cionlabs develop and design smart door locks and other IoT solutions featuring Fingerprints’ biometric sensor, software, and algorithm solutions. The partnership notches another win for FPC as it seeks to expand into the access control market and other new business areas beyond the mobile biometrics sector in which it built its name over the last decade. “We are happy to support innovative lock makers and suppliers who value the myriad advantages that smart biometric solutions provide,” said Fingerprints’ President of Payment and Access, Michel Roig.

Aware Announces Platform Upgrade

Aware, Inc. has upgraded its AwareID software platform with an enhanced user interface, new mobile application frameworks (Flutter and React Native), improved document capture in native SDKs, and a new system to provide automated updates to non-cloud customers. Perhaps most importantly, the platform has a new face identification capability. Meanwhile, a newly launched ‘developer hub’ offers a range of resources to devs in the form of documentation and SDKs. “The latest update to AwareID makes it easy for businesses to incorporate world-class biometric authentication without changing their backend tech, and that’s a big deal for companies large or small,” explained CTO Mohamed Lazzouni.

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September 8, 2023 – by Alex Perala