A New Pixel Gets Face Unlock: 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:

Regulatory Developments

The United Kingdom’s Home Secretary has waived a rule that previously required biometric registration from Afghans applying to join their British family members in the UK. The move was a response to a judicial ruling concerning an Afghani mother of five, who argued that she was unable to find a location at which to safely register her biometrics in the Taliban-controlled country. About 100 other families are thought to be in a similar situation in Afghanistan.

Product Launches and Orders

Veratad has announced the launch of Veratad VX, its new age and identity verification platform. The company describes VX as an extension of its IDresponse solution, which leverages multiple verification methods through a single API. VX adds “customer-facing screens that are generated as verification journeys are created by the user,” the company said in a statement. The solution was debuted at today’s TechUnited:NJ event in New Jersey.

NEXT Biometrics has revealed that it received a fingerprint sensor order from an unnamed Singapore-based distributor that “will take an important role in NEXT’s expansion in the fingerprint sensor market in India,” according to a statement. The order concerned NEXT’s FAP20 fingerprint sensors, and was valued at NOK 6 million, or roughly $560,217 USD at the time of writing. NOK says the order is “linked” to a previously announced sensor order from an India-based customer.

Strategic Partnerships

NextGenID has announced a strategic partnership with IDEMIA Identity & Security North America. NextGenID is best known for its ruggedized “Identity Portal” units, which are designed for integration into kiosks and other identity verification terminals; but the company also offers a software platform for identity management, which IDEMIA is integrating into its own identity proofing service. “Our intellectual property and expertise in high assurance identity environments is a primary need for IDEMIA’s government clients,” explained NextGenID CEO Mohab Murrar.

Mobile Biometrics

Google has officially confirmed that its Pixel 7 smartphone will support facial recognition. But the company has also confirmed to Android Police that the biometric technology will only be used in a Face Unlock feature on the device, and that it won’t be possible to use facial recognition for authentication in other transactions, such as authorizing mobile payments or using a password manager. For that, Google is sticking with the fingerprint modality, with the company revealing that the Pixel 7 will feature an under-display sensor.

Payments

EMVCo has published a new software specification for contactless and mobile payments. Dubbed the EMV Contactless Kernel Specification – ‘kernel’ is EMVCo parlance for ‘software’ – it is aimed at simplifying global acceptance of contactless payments and supporting their security, with EMVCo noting that the Kernel delivers “requirements and features” including support for Elliptic Curve Cryptography, security against ‘man-in-the-middle’ and ‘migration of relay’ attacks, and biometric authentication methods.

Industry Awards

BIO-key’s PortalGuard has been named “Access Management Solution of the Year” at the 2022 Cybersecurity Breakthrough Awards. This is the second consecutive year that PortalGuard has won the distinction. BIO-key obtained the platform through its acquisition of PistolStar in 2020, and PortalGuard has since proven to be a real boon to BIO-key’s business.

Once More, With Transparency

Liberia’s National Elections Commission has begun its re-evaluation of bids for the procurement of a biometric voter identification system after a controversial first round. There had been indications that the Commission played favorites with a China-based vendor called EKEMP, leading the Public Procurement Concessions Commission to refuse the Commission’s selection of a consortium featuring EKEMP. The PPCC has asked the Commission to re-run the selection process with a few new conditions, including that vendors demonstrations of their technologies be recorded, and that they submit copies of their PowerPoint presentations.

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October 6, 2022 – by Alex Perala

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Partners

FaceTec’s patented, industry-leading 3D Face Verification and Reverification software anchors digital identity, creating a chain of trust from user onboarding to ongoing authentication on all modern smart devices and webcams. FaceTec’s 3D FaceMaps™ finally make trusted, remote identity verification possible. As the only technology backed by a persistent spoof bounty program and NIST/iBeta Certified Liveness Detection, FaceTec is the global standard for 3D Liveness and Face Matching with millions of users on six continents in financial services, border security, transportation, blockchain, e-voting, social networks, online dating and more. www.facetec.com

AuthenticID provides 100% automated identity verification and fraud detection solutions that are leveraged by companies worldwide, including 2 of the top 3 U.S. Banks, 8 out the top 10 wireless providers in North America, and 2 of the 3 credit bureaus. Using proprietary computer vision and machine learning technology, these solutions help companies accurately verify the identity of their users across retail, digital and call center environments for onboarding and ongoing re-authentication events; KYC, IAM, and more. The solutions are easy to integrate and provide customers a large ROI by stopping fraud losses, increasing customer conversion at onboarding, reducing operational costs and allowing quick and cost-effective operational scalability, all while ensuring global privacy regulations are complied with. https://www.authenticid.com/

Anonybit is a privacy-focused technology platform that provides decentralized solutions for securing personal data, particularly biometric information. Rather than storing sensitive data in centralized repositories, which are vulnerable to breaches, Anonybit uses a distributed architecture that breaks data into smaller encrypted bits and stores them across a network of decentralized nodes. This approach ensures that no single entity has access to the full dataset, enhancing privacy and security, even preventing insider threats. Anonybit is used by leading banks, fintechs and other enterprises for critical biometric identity functions like deduplication and blocklist checks, step up authentication, passwordless login and account recovery https://anonybit.io/

Identity Week aims to be a significant identity industry catalyst. It’s our mission is to help accelerate the move towards a world where trusted identity solutions enable governments and commercial organisations to provide citizens, employees, customers and consumers with a multitude of opportunities to transact in a seamless, yet secure manner. All the while preventing the efforts of those intent on doing harm. https://identityweek.net/

The Biometric Digital Identity Prism is a market landscape framework designed to help influencers and decision makers understand, innovate, and implement digital identity technologies and solutions. This innovative framework for understanding and evaluating the rapidly evolving biometric digital identity marketplace is the only market model that is truly biometric-centric based on the foundational conviction that in the age of digital transformation the only true, reliable link between humans and their digital data is biometrics. https://www.the-prism-project.com

ID R&D is an innovator of biometric facial liveness, document liveness, and voice biometrics. Ranked #1 by NIST, our patented passive approach to liveness, and specialized detection of voice clones, injection attacks and deepfakes, empowers KYC and authentication systems with fast, accurate and secure biometric verification technologies. Over 140 partners in more than 70 countries are collectively processing hundreds of millions of identity checks per year. ID R&D solutions easily integrate with mobile, web, messaging, smart speakers, set-top boxes, and IoT devices. Learn more: www.idrnd.ai