New Zealand Looks to Set Standards for Selfie ID Verification and Anti-Spoofing

New Zealand’s Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) has launched a new initiative to develop technical standards for selfie capture and liveness detection technologies, forming part of the country’s broader push to modernize its biometric identity verification systems. The initiative coincides with New Zealand’s efforts to finalize a comprehensive biometrics code by mid-2025, aimed at strengthening privacy protections and security standards for the use of biometric data in the public sector.

The DIA has issued a request for information (RFI) seeking expert input on best practices for capturing high-quality selfies and detecting liveness to prevent spoofing attacks involving photographs, videos, or deepfakes. Importantly, the RFI clarifies that the project is not intended to expand facial recognition surveillance capabilities, but rather to enhance the quality and security of user-submitted images for identity verification purposes, such as passport applications and digital identity services like RealMe.

The standards will prioritize both security and accessibility, setting technical specifications for selfie capture, anti-spoofing measures, and usability for individuals with disabilities or limited access to advanced technology. Proposed system performance benchmarks include returning results for 80 percent of requests within 30 seconds, and for 99 percent within 60 seconds. All data must be processed within New Zealand’s borders, and the contract is expected to run for seven years, with optional two-year extensions. The move seeks to address existing limitations in New Zealand’s public sector biometric systems, where insufficient automation has forced staff to manually review images and where past evaluations noted slightly higher false match rates for Māori and Pasifika participants due to image quality disparities.

The DIA’s standards development process will involve consultation with a wide range of stakeholders, including technology providers, privacy advocates, and accessibility experts. This collaborative approach aims to address concerns raised during the Privacy Commissioner’s public consultation on the draft biometrics code, which emphasized the need for strong transparency obligations, proportionality tests for biometric data collection, and restrictions on practices like emotion recognition and invasive biometric categorization. Although the code provides exceptions for consumer products and individual uses, advocacy groups have raised concerns about the removal of explicit consent safeguards and the adequacy of oversight mechanisms.

The biometric standards initiative is expected to complement New Zealand’s broader digital identity efforts, including the Digital Identity Services Trust Framework (DISTF), which aims to establish consistent rules for trusted digital services nationwide. Global trends reinforce the urgency of such work, with the Biometrics Institute reporting a six percent increase in multimodal biometrics adoption and warning that advances in artificial intelligence are creating both new opportunities and new threats, including increasingly sophisticated spoofing techniques.

The final selfie capture and liveness detection standards will be adopted following the completion and approval of the national biometrics code, which remains on track for release by mid-2025. The government’s goal is to create a secure, inclusive, and privacy-conscious framework for digital identity verification that can adapt to evolving technological and societal demands.

Sources: New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs

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April 25, 2025 – by the ID Tech Editorial Team