Yoti Explains the Basics of Biometric Authentication

Yoti is trying to make the biometric authentication process a little more comprehensible for its users. Data Protection Officer Emma Butler has detailed the theory and the intent behind the company’s selfie authentication technology in a new post on the Yoti blog, explaining how it uses a facial recognition scan to create a biometric template – a string of ones and zeroes – that can be used to verify someone’s identity during future interactions.

The core concept will be familiar to those caught up on the latest biometric trends, but the post is clearly intended for a more casual audience. In that regard, it is a reasonably accessible breakdown of the biometric basics, which is itself in keeping with Yoti’s broader commitment to transparency. Butler explains that biometric identification is more secure than traditional forms of ID because it is more difficult to create a fake biometric template than it is to create a fake ID card, although she does emphasize the importance of liveness detection in such a system.

To that end, Butler notes that Yoti uses Cognitec’s NIST-certified technology to compare the initial biometric template to a photo ID to ensure that the biometric template corresponds to the person depicted in the ID document. Yoti also utilizes anti-spoofing tech to make sure that the user is a real person instead of a photo or a mask.

Butler acknowledges that Yoti uses customer data to improve its biometric technology. However, the post makes it clear that Yoti does not share biometric templates with any other parties, and that users can opt out of the R&D process at any time.

Last year, Yoti bolstered its reputation with a Fair Tax Mark Accreditation. The company has since come out in support of the Biometrics Institute’s ethical principles, and set up its own Guardian Council to make sure it acts in accordance with those principles.

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November 22, 2019 – by Eric Weiss