The MLB Pitches Biometric Access – 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:

MLB Brings Biometric Entry to Philly

Philadelphia’s Citizens Bank Park will offer the stage for Major League Baseball’s entry into face-based ticketing. Starting on Monday, a dedicated gate will allow individuals to walk through and have their tickets automatically validated by a face scan. They’ll need to register with a selfie image on the MLB Ballpark app beforehand, enabling what the MLB calls “Go-Ahead Entry”. Officials are aiming bring the system to more ballparks next year.

EU Rights Agency to Study Police Use of Facial Recognition

The European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights is offering contracts for agencies willing to participate in a study of how law enforcement uses facial recognition technology. The AFR has set aside €350,000 in total, and is looking to study six ongoing deployments across at least four EU member states. Contracts are expected to last for 12 months, with applications due by September 29. The use and regulation of facial recognition technology has been a key point of contention in ongoing negotiations about the EU’s proposed AI Act.

Russia Ramping Up Biometric Surveillance: Report

Russian authorities have intensified the deployment of facial recognition systems since the invasion of Ukraine, with 24 of the 56 deployed systems having been implemented since 2022, according to The Moscow Times. State-owned telecom Rostelecom has been serving as the country’s primary vendor of surveillance technology, both directly and through subsidiary contracts. Forty percent of the cameras deployed are in Moscow, with St. Petersburg in second place. Russian authorities have used the biometric surveillance capabilities to round up dissidents, among other things.

With BIPA Damages To Be Determined, BNSF Railways Wants to Settle

BNSF Railways is looking to negotiate a settlement under new legal counsel in its high-profile case under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). A ruling last fall determined that BNSF had violated BIPA through its collection of truck drivers’ biometric data, awarding up to $228 million in damages; but an appeal led to a new ruling this past June that determined that while BNSF was still at fault, the scale of damages should be decided by a jury in a new trial. BNSF says it has now hired a new law firm “to represent it in settlement negotiations with the plaintiff and, if necessary, a re-trial on damages.”

GardaWorld Deploys IDEMIA Access Control at New HQ

GardaWorld, the prominent physical security services company, has implemented biometric access control technology from IDEMIA at its new headquarters in Montreal. Deployed through its partner Gallagher Security, IDEMIA’s VisionPass allows authorized individuals to access the premises with a face scan. IDEMIA’s MorphoWave contactless palm scanner has also been deployed, further helping GardaWorld to move away from the use of physical ID badges.

G Medical Innovations, RSS Announce Remote Monitoring Partnership

Israel-based G Medical Innovations has established a partnership, through its US-based subsidiary, with Resilient Support Services (RSS), a ‘Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Business’ focused on offering medical care to military veterans. The partnership revolves around G Medical Innovations’ remote patient monitoring devices, which scan biometrics related to unusual arrhythmias and other medical issues.

SIGNiX Launches eSignature Solution for Wealth Management Firms

Tennessee-based SIGNiX has launched Compliance Lock, an e-signature verification tool aimed at wealth management firms. Compliance Lock is designed to scan detailed audit trails for red flags, and is supported by multi-factor authentication options including biometrics and one-time PINs. “Our mission is to empower broker-dealers and RIAs with the tools they need to combat emerging threats and avoid costly fines and damaged reputations,” explained SIGNiX CEO Jay Jumper.

TECH5 Patents AI-Powered Fingerprint Tech

TECH5 has received a US patent for the neural network-based biometric scanning and liveness technology used in its T5-AirSnap Finger solution. Patent 11721120, titled ““Contactless fingerprint capture using artificial intelligence and image processing on integrated camera systems”, details a system that, among other things, produces a 3D depth map of a finger enabling 500 dpi resolution. News of the patent approval comes after TECH5 attained top rankings in a contactless fingerprint evaluation program organized by Clarkson University and the University of Buffalo.

Trust Stamp Further Builds IP Portfolio

Trust Stamp received its 18th patent from the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Patent #11,729,158, entitled “Systems and Methods for Identity Authentication via Third Party Accounts”, concerns the use of things like social media accounts for authentication. “This technology, while leveraging our core privacy-first technologies, provides an optional interlock between different types of user accounts benefiting from the strengths that each can offer in terms of user authentication to produce a more resilient user-centric ecosystem,” explained Trust Stamp President Andrew Gowasack. The company announced its 17th patent, concerning the tokenization of biometrics, last week.

Beyond Identity Launches JavaScript Tool to Assess Passkey Potential

With adoption of passkey support ramping up, New York-based Beyond Identity has launched a tool aimed at helping organizations determine whether and how to enable passkeys for users. The ‘Passkey Journey’ offers a JavaScript snippet that can be integrated into a website to analyze visitors’ browsers and devices in an effort to determine their support for WebAuthn, the public key cryptography credentials used in passkeys. Once deployed, the tool delivers a dynamic report for IT administrators. In a statement, FIDO Alliance Executive Director Andrew Shikiar lauded Beyond Identity’s valuable efforts to promote passwordless authentication – a key part of FIDO’s mission. “The Passkey Journey is a valuable development tool that stands to help enterprises make informed decisions on their passkey deployments,” he said.

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August 17, 2023 – by Alex Perala