Wendy’s Settles Its BIPA Beef – 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:

Mobile Malware Collects Face Biometrics

A new malware Trojan is collecting the face biometrics of smartphone users by tricking them into performing selfie-based authentication. It gets onto users’ devices through an elaborate scam, in which threat actors pose as government officials, contact their target victims, and tell them to download a “digital pension” app that contains the malware. From there, the “GoldPickaxe” malware is able to adjust various permission settings on the user’s device, and to intercept SMS messages. It prompts the users to record a selfie video, providing the threat actors with the biometric credentials needed to sign into official apps and online accounts.

Philippines Airport Authorities Consider Biometric Passenger Processing Pilot

The Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines (CAAP) and the country’s Davao International Airport Authority (DIAA) are reportedly considering a pilot of curb-to-gate biometric passenger processing technology. Representatives of the organizations, together with those from the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA), Clark International Airport Corporation (CIAC), and others, recently attended a forum on the subject hosted by the Philippines’ Department of Transportation. Private sector vendors were also in attendance, including Amadeus and Vision-Box – which recently announced an acquisition deal – as well as Collins Aerospace, IDEMIA, and SITA.

Maine High School Backs Down from Biometric Attendance Plan

A high school in Maine has reversed plans to implement a biometric student attendance system. Caribou High School Principal Jamie Selfridge had sent a letter informing parents of the school’s plans to implement IdentiMetrics’ fingerprint-based technology earlier this year. That prompted the American Civil Liberties Union of Maine to submit a Maine Freedom of Access Act request to get records of communications between school officials and IdentiMetrics, as well as negative feedback from some parents. Selfridge has now sent a letter informing parents that school administrators would seek out alternatives to the system.

Wendy’s Reaches $18.2M BIPA Settlement

The restaurant chain Wendy’s has reached an $18.2 million settlement in a class action lawsuit filed against it under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit revolved around Wendy’s use of fingerprint-scanning technology for employees operating its point-of-sale terminals. Wendy’s has not admitted wrongdoing. Class members who used a Wendy’s fingerprint scanner in Illinois between September 11, 2013, and November 29, 2023, are eligible to receive about $575 each. Last year, Wenzak Heartland, a Wendy’s franchise owner, also settled a BIPA lawsuit, in that case for $1.9 million.

Greece Prepares Immigration Modernization Program

Greece’s Minister of Migration and Asylum, Dimitris Kairidis, has announced plans to open four new biometric data collection centers to serve immigrants to the country within the first half of 2024. Three are planned for Athens, while another will be built in Thessaloniki. It’s part of a broader effort to modernize the country’s immigration process, which also includes draft legislation related to granting and renewing residence permits for immigrants.

Poll Finds Support for San Francisco Policing Boost

A poll conducted by the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce found that 61 percent of respondents said they were in support of a policing-focused proposition that will be on the ballot on March 5th. First announced by Mayor London Breed last autumn, Proposition E would allow police to use drones and public surveillance cameras, including cameras equipped with facial recognition, without approval from the Board of Supervisors, among other provisions. The poll also found that 37 percent of respondents were opposed to the measure.

Trulioo Provides Onboarding Tech for Canada’s EQ Bank

EQ Bank, a Canadian digital bank with no physical branches, is using Trulioo’s facial recognition technology to verify the identities of customers. Trulioo’s system asks users to upload images of their official ID and a selfie, and matches them together, with liveness detection technology ensuring that the end user truly is present during the IDV session. EQ Bank implemented the system through the Trulioo Workflow Studio, a drag-and-drop tool designed to help organizations easily build their own onboarding processes.

ROC Shares Strong NIST ELFT Results

ROC is celebrating another strong showing in testing conducted by the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Its ROC SDK v3.0 solution achieved the third-place global ranking for accuracy in NIST’s Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies (ELFT), in terms of aggregate results for distal and palm prints. When speed is taken into consideration, ROC is claiming the top spot for efficiency; asserting that its algorithm is more than 150 times faster than its closest competitor for latent fingerprint recognition.

Simplici Launches P2P Security System

Houston-based Simplici has launched Simplici Defense, a security tool built specifically for peer-to-peer payments. Essentially, the Simplici Defense prompts users for biometric authentication in the form of facial recognition when performing a transaction; it also collects location and device data for added security. Simplici is targeting banks to implement its new security tool, with CEO Austin Trombley pitching it as “a game-changer in the fight against User Authorized Fraud.”

Blockchain Startup Embraces Passkeys

Aptos Labs has announced its support for passkey-based authentication. Founded by former Meta employees, Aptos is developing a Layer 1 public blockchain to support decentralized applications (dApps). The startup says it has built its own passkey authenticator for the Aptos ecosystem, but it is open-source and could be adopted by other organizations. It operates through the same fundamental mechanism of the passkey concept, prompting end users to perform a biometric scan on their device in order to authorize transactions.

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February 15, 2024 – by Alex Perala