TECH5 Lays Out ‘Key Principles’ Guiding Its Biometric Tech

With concerns on the rise about privacy in the age of AI, TECH5 has laid out five “key principles” that guide the development of its biometric technology. The principles, which specifically govern its use of biometric data to train neural networks as well as the implementation of its technology, are as follows:

1. The use of consent-based depersonalized data for training of algorithms
2. Regular benchmarking
3. Development of inclusive technologies
4. Contribution to the development of standards and raising the level of expertise in the biometric market
5. Control over the use o technologies developed by TECH5 by only certified partners

In a statement, TECH5 said it was laying out these principles in “support of the global movement for protecting the biometric data of individuals”. The principles are applied to all of the biometric modalities in TECH5’s purview, including face, fingerprint, and iris recognition.

Rob Haslam, an identity industry veteran who was appointed as a strategic advisor to the company in the summer of 2020, elaborated further, saying, “Today we are outlining our principles for using biometric data and technology development, hoping for such rules to be adopted by other companies involved in the design and development of biometric algorithms.”

A growing number of vendors in the biometrics industry have been calling for ethical standards to be applied to biometric technologies, either by regulators or by those within the industry itself. Rank One Computing, for example, announced a collaboration to that end with the Security Industry Association last September, and Oosto called for national ethical guidelines for biometric technologies in an open letter earlier this year.

The issue is closely entwined with that of privacy, which emerged as a top concern for the biometrics industry at large in the latest FindBiometrics Year in Review survey results.

For its part, TECH5 takes a number of measures to ensure that it complies with its own governing principles, including regularly training and benchmarking its algorithms, contributing to industry associations like the Biometrics Institute and the European Association for Biometrics, and striving to ensure that its technologies highly accurate when used to match individuals across a range of demographics, among other efforts.

“In order to make sure that TECH5 technologies are used to serve inclusion in all aspects of people’s lives – from government services and programs to banking and healthcare – we carefully select partners for distribution of our technology components and intentionally invest in consent-based, high-quality date,” explained TECH CEO and co-founder Machiel van der Harst.

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February 22, 2022 – by Alex Perala