Pangea Unveils New Border Screening System

The digital identity specialist Pangea has brought a new border control solution to London’s Identity Week. Identity Week runs from June 28-29, and Pangea’s new 360° Border Control system will be on display at booth 710.

In terms of utility, the 360° Border Control system is designed to provide border control agents with more context about each passenger. The system draws on more than 3,000 open source databases to perform quick background checks and determine someone’s risk level as they pass through the border. Those who are flagged as a threat can then be referred to another agent for more thorough questioning.

In that regard, Pangea stressed that its system does not make any decisions on its own, and instead simply provides agents with additional information that they can factor into their own decision-making processes. Having said that, those who are flagged are presumably more likely to be pulled aside, so Pangea’s solution could raise concerns about bias, depending on what kinds of factors are more likely to trigger an alert.

The same is true with regards to the system’s biometric components. According to Pangea, the 360° Border Control system can read someone’s body language and factor their behavior into its final analysis. However, international travel is already stressful for many people, so their emotional state may not necessarily correspond to their actual risk level. Pangea did not share any details about how body language is factored into its decisions.

Pangea’s background check draws on images and activity pulled from the internet and various social media platforms. The databases are open source, though the web-scraping could still be a point of contention for privacy advocates.

“Our technology is helping to overcome the issue of data existing in siloes,” said Pangea CEO Rafi Kaminer.  “Rather than collating and storing data on a single database, Pangea’s technology gathers insights from across existing data lakes. We can provide border agencies with accurate, actionable insight through one integrated solution, making the vetting process both more rigorous and more efficient at a time when the global movement of people continues to rise.”

Pangea has previously advocated for the use of biometric smart cards in COVID-19 immunity passports. The company’s new offering is in keeping with the broader trend toward digital transformation in air travel.

–

June 29, 2022 – by Eric Weiss