Who Is Providing the Taliban’s Facial Recognition Surveillance Tech? – 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:

Taliban May Be Sourcing FRT From Huawei

The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs in Afghanistan (or “the Mol”) has revealed that law enforcement authorities have been using cameras equipped with facial recognition to arrest criminals, with further potential deployments planned. A spokesperson for the Mol insisted that the Taliban government has not contracted the cameras from a foreign entity, but an earlier report from a China-focused news outlet pointed to an “August 2023 agreement between the Taliban and Huawei” that could lead to the deployment of facial recognition cameras in the country.

PimEyes Implements Child Safety System as AFP Discloses Use of Service

PimEyes has implemented a new safeguard in its biometric search engine, which allows subscribers to submit a photo of a face and look for any matches on the internet. The system is now using age estimation technology in an attempt to block searches of children, though CEO Giorgi Gobronidze says that certain human rights organizations will still be able to perform such searches. The New York Times tested the tool by submitting a photo of the famous Olsen twins as children. It blocked a search for one of the twins, who was facing the camera, but proceeded for the other, whose face was in profile.

The service has been tested this year by members of the Australian Federal Police, according to records that The Guardian obtained through freedom of information laws. The AFP has acknowledged that a “small number” of personnel had accessed PimEyes as part of professional development training and to assess its potential use for law enforcement. There had been nine such occasions, and the AFP once accessed a similar service called FaceCheck.ID.

Amazon Rolls Out Passkey Support

Amazon has enabled support for passkey-based login, with the feature going live on the web for all customers. The tech giant and retailer also says it is “gradually” rolling out passkey support on the iOS Amazon Shopping app, with Android support “coming soon”. The move comes after Google’s announcement earlier this month that it would make passkeys the default login option for personal Google Accounts, adding more momentum to the passkey movement.

1Kosmos Certified Under UK’s DIATF

1Kosmos’s flagship identity platform, BlockID, has been certified under the United Kingdom’s Digital Identity and Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF), confirming the company as an official digital Identity Service Provider (IDSP) and Attribute Service Provider (ASP). BlockID verifies end users by comparing a selfie photo to images of their official ID, and checking their identity information against other databases such as electoral rolls, politically exposed persons registries, and the the CIFAS database (Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System).

VSBLTY’s Smart Signage to See NBA Deployment

VSBLTY’s AI-powered smart signage will be deployed at a “major western sports and entertainment arena” for the NBA season, the company has announced. It will be in the form of a smart cooler for beverages, which will feature an attention-grabbing screen and a camera to detect consumers’ demographic data. VSBLTY also offers facial recognition and weapon detection systems, but in this case the smart cooler will seek only to collect anonymized data concerning things like age, ethnicity, and how long basketball fans are looking at a given piece of media.

Entersekt Gets a New Financial Services Partner

Entersekt and EbankIT have entered into a partnership that will bring the former’s “Context Aware Authentication” technology into EbankIT’s digital banking platform. Entersekt’s Context Aware Authentication system is designed to determine the most appropriate authentication mechanism for an end user based on a number of factors including the channel through which they are interacting with an institution, the reason for the transaction, device, information, and the end user’s preferences. The partnership comes after Entersekt’s announcement earlier this month that it had integrated biometric authentication into its mobile banking platform.

Tadera Launches Biometric Access Card Based On Zwipe Tech

Tadera, a New Orleans-based company offering IT solutions for airports, has launched a new biometric access card based on Zwipe technology. The Airport Secure Credential (ASC) Biometric Access Card features a built-in fingerprint sensor and NFC capabilities, and is meant to secure sensitive airport facilities. Tadera is showcasing the card at the 2023 ACI-NA PS&S / ACC Security Technology Conference, an event focused on airport security that is running from October 23 to 26 in Arlington, Virginia.

–

October 24, 2023 – by Alex Perala