Mobey Forum, which represents players in the financial sector, is forming an expert group on digital wallets to explore use cases and commercial opportunities for participation in beyond payment solutions.
Customer-focused payment demand has led to innovation from physical payment cards to contactless payments and now a few dominant virtual pay providers such as Apply Pay integrating their services with another hot trend – digital wallets.
While a few main players are notably in control of the recent growth of virtual pay options, and capitalising on the pioneering digital wallet, other companies are wanting to insert themselves among this lucrative ecosystem and diversify the landscape of Apple and PayPal.
The Digital Wallet Expert Group will link up practitioners and members of the Mobey Forum to identify who the power players are, assess consumer trends and technology advances to stake out their role in the burgeoning digital identity ecosystem.
Mobey Forum helps its members consider the route to launching digital technologies. Mobey Forum’s Mobile Wallet Working Group published a series of insights in 2012 and 2013 whitepapers on competition players.
Mobey Forum’s report, “the rise of digital identity wallets: where will banks play” reflects the unique opportunity that banks have to “expand their portfolio of services to become brokers of trust in the trust-based digital economy or ‘Digital Trust Economy’, where entities including people, businesses, and machines can exchange data with each other in a reliable and trustworthy manner”.
Consumers have boosted the demand of digital wallets, prompting pay providers to explore the commercial opportunities of integrating their services with wallets. In America, one of the key global markets for digital wallet expansion, 66% of people expect to have a digital wallet by 2023.
The expert group is founded on the belief that banks should be evolving beyond the traditional trust services they provide to relate to customers’ growing financial and life needs. Digital identity also offers banks the opportunity to be more embedded in their customers’ lives and hold a strong position of trust.
Elina Mattila, Executive Director of the Mobey Forum said: “As more consumers rely on digital wallets to store everything from plane tickets to identity credentials, it’s clear that banks have an important role to play in the growth and evolution of the ecosystem. Our Expert Group aims to help banks build on their strong positions of trust to establish prominent roles in the development of the infrastructure that supports digital assets, identification and trust services, open banking, and embedded finance.”
On the board of chairs, Marina Repo comments: “Market developments have brought digital wallets back to the very centre of all financial players’ strategies. The new Expert Group will help all banks, together with those stakeholders engaged with them, to determine the best course forward, with the collaborative goal of ensuring that new digital wallet offerings evolve to deliver maximum value for the customers they collectively serve.”
World-leading biometrics company Fingerprint Cards AB (Fingerprints™) and Flywallet, a biometric wearables technology startup, are collaborating to develop and launch biometric wearable products for the European market.
Flywallet has built a range of consumer products that support payments, mobility, access and health use cases in a single ecosystem. Among other uses, its products enable secure payments, ticketing and loyalty services; password-free login to online services; and building and car access control.
The wearable products from Flywallet will now feature Fingerprints’ biometric sensors, software and algorithm benefitting from their ultra-low-power consumption, leading performance, and the company’s years of experience in secure biometrics innovation. Fingerprints’ sensors are designed to be multifunctional to enable usage across a range of different form factors to enhance the security, privacy and user experience.
Roger Carrico, Vice President, Head of Sales for Payment & Access at Fingerprints, commented: “Collaborating with Flywallet will accelerate growth of the biometric wearables market in Europe and improve consumer access to new biometric products that enhance convenience and trust. For Fingerprints, this partnership is further evidence that our sensors can easily be integrated with other hardware devices to support the development of secure and innovative biometrics products.”
Lorenzo Frollini, Founder, CEO & CTO at Flywallet, said: “We are pleased to have established a strong partnership with Fingerprints, where we can share an innovative vision on biometric wearables. Together, we are enabling simple and secure biometric technology that people can use to enhance their everyday lives. In an ever-advancing and hyperconnected world, we believe companies that come together will thrive in providing a smooth and secure user experience to access digital services. Our partnership with Fingerprints follows our goal and direction of building a cyber risk-proof interface to connect physical and digital identities, based on the simplicity of biometrics.”
Demand for wearable devices is expected to continue increasing. Most wearables, however, do not have sufficient security measures required for activities such as making a payment or unlocking a car or front door.
By combining biometric authentication with wearable technology, Flywallet ensures only the owner of the device can use it. This enables new possibilities for wearable technology in verticals such as payments and access – key focus areas for Fingerprints, which has dedicated business divisions for improving the safety, security and convenience of payments and access through biometric technology.
Identity Week Europe 2023 set to bring together thousands of global executives to be inspired by 200 speakers over 2 incredible days of content at the RAI Amsterdam, 13-14th June 2023!
Every year we reserve a limited number of free conference passes for government and public sector employees to ensure that government bodies are able to remain at the forefront of innovation in identity.
Our speakers are visionary industry leaders and disruptors from all disciplines. They are selected for their relevance, dynamism and insight.
We are hugely proud to announce some of our latest keynote speakers below…
Jeen de Swart, Security Information Architect, Netherlands Ministry of Justice; ICAO Board Member
Jeen is an information/security architect with more than 30 years of governmental experience in computer- and chip-technology, cryptography, mathematics, HSM and PKI. As founder and member of the expertise centre for PKI within the Judicial Information service of the Ministry of Justice and Security, he is also teaching in the subject of chip-technology and PKI around the world.
Natalie Jones, Director – Digital Identity, GDS
Natalie Jones is the Director for the flagship GOV.UK One Login Programme. She has overall responsibility to deliver this programme for the Government and brings a breadth of critical national infrastructure, engineering and digital identity knowledge to her role
Matthias Karl Koehler, Vice President And Head Of Sales, Muehlbauer GmbH & Co. KG
Matthias Koehler has been appointed Vice President of Mühlbauer ID Services GmbH, concerning the western hemisphere in February 2011. In this position he signs responsible for sales, marketing and business development. One of his main tasks is to leverage the market requirements with the activities of the research and development departments of Mühlbauer.
In a serious security mishap admitted by the Goa government, a circular containing confidential department logins was accidentally shared on the public government website.
The circular states that departments should change their password credentials frequently after the first login. Login credentials to 98 government department portals were shared publicly, going against the government’s own privacy protocols and exposing the data to be exploited by cyber criminals.
The administrative reforms department accepts digitalised submission of the annual report for 2019-20 due by Monday.
“They have mentioned the username and the passwords of all the departments and made it available in public domain. No doubt, they have said change the password on the first login, ut we all know the usual approach of the government departments”.
For the second consecutive year, consumer trust in Singapore’s banks has risen in accordance with a high performance during the pandemic and upgrades to secure authentication and onboarding processes in the fight against fraud.
The Banking Trust score for Singapore climbed to 70 points in 2022 from 61 points in 2021. As financial crimes become more prevalent with sophisticated techniques used by hackers, banks are facing pressure to protect payments as banks deliver more virtual pay methods for consumers that integrate with common-use digital wallets.
The results show that banks are not purely interested in generating endlessly favourable revenue streams with virtual payments but at the same time ensuring that future payments are trusted, secure and resistant to fraud.
The index also reflects consumers’ satisfaction with banks implementing better data management during the peak of the pandemic.
The press release urged banks to be upfront about sharing their business values and ambitions for security and privacy.
Mr Wee Ee Cheong, ABS Chairman and CEO of UOB, said, “While it is heartening to see that the public’s trust in banks in Singapore has improved despite economic uncertainty during COVID-19, we will not rest on our laurels. Trust is vital to a strong and resilient banking industry. As responsible financial stewards, we are committed to keeping our promises to our customers, seeking to improve our products and services continually so as to honour the trust they have placed in us. Collectively, banks are committed to safeguarding the security of the financial system while ensuring that customers are able to enjoy the full benefits and convenience that digitalisation brings.”
Mr Marcus Lim, Assistant Managing Director (Banking and Insurance) of MAS, said, “With the increasing digitalisation of financial services, banks must continually invest in maintaining and building trust with their customers”.
The survey recorded the views of 3,500 Singapore residents involving 15 banks.
68% of respondents had a high level of trust in their bank.
The 2022 Biometric Technology Rally, conducted by the Department of Homeland Security, found that the group size of people being captured by face matching software through a border control-like environment had no detrimental impact on accuracy.
The undertaking of this type of study is important to determine whether busy environments like airports with a dense and continuous flow of passengers passing through security touchpoints can have an impact on the accuracy of identity verification with singular face matching.
Testing of many vendor systems took place last autumn which disclosed that our of 40 different configurations of 10 face matching algorithms and four cameras, 17 achieve the top ranking for identification while 31 combinations achieved the set goal of more than 99% accuracy.
575 participants took part in the biometrics rally which represented a wide cross-section of demographic groups and both men and women to whether the face recognition capabilities mitigated bias.
29 variations of the algorithms also successfully avoided capturing live images of people who opted out of testing and bystanders, meeting the privacy goal.
97% of people who were processed in small groups took less than two seconds to be recognised accurately.
The only technical fault of the cameras was to supply/capture a photograph of the individuals which algorithm matching.
Arun Vemury, Center Lead, DHS S&T Biometric and Identity Technology Center said the purpose of the rally was to raise the “performance bar, to further challenge industry to develop technologies that address operational challenges and constraints” such as accuracy, speed, and ease of use while also “addressing privacy and civil rights and civil liberties concerns”.
For people applying for temporary residency within Canada, news just in from the Government of Canada has confirmed that the collection of biometrics will resume for issuing visa applications.
The more streamlined experience of using biometrics is upending lengthy and overburdening procedures to identity mass numbers of people, usually the task of governments to issue residency or other permits.
The return of biometric processes for residency will affect making an application on or after February 23, 2023.
The resumption comes after 31 months of hiatus amid the pandemic when free travel was ended, prompting Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to halt the services altogether on July 15, 2020.
To make an application incurs a fee to submit biometrics through one of more than 70 Service Canada Centre collection sites, after which the applicant will be contacted with biometric instruction.
The specific groups which will be affected, as the press release explicitly acknowledged, are all individuals applying for a temporary residence status in Canada, including holders of a right to work or study permit, temporary resident permit, visitor visa or those looking to extend their stay or restore status as a student, visitor or worker.
The IRCC implemented an extenuating circumstances policy amid the ongoing service disruption to exempt applicants applying from within Canada from having to provide their biometrics.
Share your insight and participate in a full stakeholder forum with all of the identity industry based in Asia.
We are now accepting enquires to be involved and speak at Identity Week Asia in November 2023, with an expanded conference agenda to cater for any specialist subject in the identity space.
We will be facilitating discussions that move applications and sector innovation forward in our historic topic areas: Security documents, digital ID and biometrics.
Although the scope of subjects we cover has increased and follows huge trends such as mobile ID wallets and decentralised identity – providing users’ more control over sharing their identity and personal information.
Our Asia region specific conference is uniquely positioned and grounded in digital onboarding, IAM and e-payments and tackling fraud in financial services which will attract an impressive turnout of banking professionals to meet at the show.
There is also variation and a holistic approach immersed in Identity Week Asia which will acknowledge how digital identity is infiltrating many industries and sections of society with world-class use cases.
The “technological revolution” of digital identity goes further than any one area which is why during the two-day conference, our attendees will also have the opportunity to meet and listen to top representatives from the aviation and travel industries, the public sector and healthcare.
These experts will talk in nuanced panel sessions focused on the role of biometrics for passenger safety and interoperability and trust frameworks being thoughtfully curated by governments.
Don’t miss out on the chance to share insights with the industry and align actionable goals, as well as push yourself to achieve personal goals of driving change to provision more identity use cases.
You may be working on current applications or developing innovative technologies to share with the most influential members of the identity community.
We are looking for industry experts, professionals, entrepreneurs, universities, R&D centres, associations and organisations to speak in thought-led sessions and be involved in a multi-faceted event.
If you have any questions, or would like to speak to a team member about speaking opportunities please contact:
World Bank data sets in the last few years have magnified the sheer volume of people who simply cannot prove who they are. While the stark figure of 1 billion people living without an ID has decreased to around 850 million, UNDP is involved with partners on a collaborative vision for legal identity.
Niall McCann, of the UNDP, discusses the downstream of consequences that not having a legal form of ID has on their daily lives and accessibility to services.
“A birth certificate is the gold standard of legal identity and the priorities should always be to register people at the closest point to their birth as possible”.
Niall shared the UNDP’s scepticism about prioritising the issuance of identity documentation for adults because there should be holistic approach for the whole lifecycle from birth to death.
The UN Legal Identity project also makes a real difference in third countries like Honduras where the programme is focused on providing identity visibility for displaced peoples, minorities, refugees, the LGBTQI+ community and people with disabilities.
Whilst facial recognition software is widely recognised as a useful mechanism to eliminate airport chaos, it is truly amazing to see how the advances in facial biometric technology can be used for humanitarian ends – most recently in identifying young victims of Turkey and Syria’s devastating earthquakes.
The software DerinGÖRÜ was donated by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkiye amid the unfolding natural disaster, with previous use by police and other institutions and is helping to match the biometrics of young missing survivors pulled from the rubble who are unable to provide their personal information to authorities with missing people databases.
The Hürriyet Daily News reported with a better insight into events that that 144 children have been identified so far.
As hopes begin to fade for news of the missing as time goes on, and the death toll rises to 25,000, the software is at least helping to prevent a prolonged separation and agonising wait for news for families of missing children.
Around 80,000 people are being treated in hospital.
IQ Structures, a research and manufacturing organisation focused on nanotechnology engineering, a member of the IQS Group, has launched IQ Mint, a technological solution for anti-counterfeit protection and the visual enhancement of precious metal objects, such as coins, medals and investment bars. Thanks to the unique technology for transferring the holographic relief to metals, it enables the creation of art objects with a unique breathtaking look, where the shimmering shine of the metal is combined with the distinctive colours and effects of holograms.
“Investing in commemorative coins and other precious metal items is on the rise. This also means a growing demand for anti-counterfeiting protection.
An advanced hologram provides a huge advantage, making it possible for the genuineness of an object to be recognised by virtually anyone. The owner of an investment item is not dependent on a limited number of professional dealers and banks, “ explains IQ Structures´ CEO Petr Franc.
These unique features include, for example:
Colour rainbows
3D plastic objects with color suppression, enabling fine details
Two-dimensional flip-flop effects
Three-dimensional display
The silver CZK 500 coin with the Skoda 489 Albatros Locomotive released last year by the Czech National Bank, which reviewers describe as an “eye-catching innovation”, demonstrate some of the possibilities presented by the IQ Mint. The coin carries effects that evoke the movement of a steam locomotive, such as spinning wheels and smoke from its chimney.
Other areas of use are also emerging, such as the physical form of cryptocurrencies. Protection for regular coins will also come in the future. As banknotes are increasingly better protected, some counterfeiters are turning to the forging of coins. For example, the European authorities had to issue a warning about counterfeit two-euro coins last year, and the US regularly publishes a ranking of the 50 most counterfeited (and therefore most risky) coins
“Holograms on coins have been around for a while, but when you hold an object with an IQ Mint hologram, you’ll see a huge difference. The IQ Mint is a revolutionary technological breakthrough solution with years of our work behind it. Both years of development by our research lab and dozens of projects in collaboration with various mints. Together we are creating a world where there is more trust and where we will be surrounded by beautiful objects,” concluded Robert Dvořák, Managing Director of IQ Structures.
Nine exciting tech projects, some offering security tech and biometrics, will be selected to receive a cash injection worth a total of $8.4 million from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial R&D Foundation.
The projects offered the funding will be evaluated by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Israel Innovation Authority and receive additional private sector funding.
The BIRD Foundation promotes collaborations between U.S. and Israeli companies in various technological sectors for joint product development. In addition to providing conditional grants of up to $1.5 million per project, the Foundation assists by working with companies to identify potential strategic partners and facilitate introductions.
The UK government’s centralised Login-dot-gov could be opened up to other department benefits services to crack down on fraud authentication.
The State of the Union in 2022 promised a federated Login-dot-gov system which would provide legitimate access to public benefits programs, that alone have been hit by $60 billion loses in fraudulent login attempts from an 18 month period starting in April 2020.
The upscaling of Login-dot-gov would include local as well as state government impacting benefits access for the entire U.S. population.
Private verification and authentication providers can also be offered tenders to help provider better secure access to the benefits program and other department services.
In conjunction, the government is preparing for the federated OneLogin system which will unify over 170 login routes to a single authentication method.
The draft order also clarifies how the system must operate in terms of adhering to data privacy and liability and notifying users that their identity information is being obtained and verified when they use the federated login system.
Firm backing behind digital ID cards has come from two former prominent members in British politics, Sir Tony Blair, who founded since his premiership founded the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, and Lord Hague, former Leader of the Conservative Party.
They voiced their support for digital ID cards as the next frontier for ‘technological revolution’.
Speaking on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, Lord Hague stated that the UK must be “one of the leaders” in AI and the technology revolution and “redesign” the state and national identification and operations around technologies, as other countries forge ahead with advancing their own digital economies.
The prominence of technology is changing how society functions, which should inspire a program for government that gets onboard with digital transformation and assembles a new national purpose with ID cards throughout changes of government parties and leaders to focus on the same ambition.
Tony Blair’s comments may seem juxtaposed with his time in Number 10 when Blair passed laws for mandatory ID cards that were later scrapped by the coalition government.
The new ID card would incorporate digital credentials such as a passport, driving licence, career records and right to work status.
Since its inception, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has convened meetings on digital identity and provided recommendations for policymakers building digital ID systems.
The former political opponents warned that politicians in the 20th century overlook the need for digital revolution in a new era for concerns around “tax and spending policy”.
Biometric verification is a powerful tool for ensuring the security and integrity of digital transactions and services, and Premier Fintech LLC is a leading provider of fintech solutions, biometric verification solutions in Qatar and beyond.
Biometric verification uses unique physical or behavioral characteristics, such as fingerprints, facial recognition, or voice recognition, to confirm a person’s identity. These characteristics are highly secure and difficult to replicate, making biometric verification an effective way to prevent fraud and identity theft.
Premier Fintech LLC offers a range of biometric verification solutions, including face verification and e-KYC (Know Your Customer) solutions, as well as mobile applications for biometric authentication. These solutions can help businesses in a wide range of industries to securely verify the identity of their customers and prevent fraud, while providing a seamless and convenient user experience.
By leveraging the power of biometric verification, businesses can enhance the security of their digital services and transactions, while also improving the customer experience and streamlining their operations. Premier Fintech LLC’s biometric verification solutions are designed to be highly secure, user-friendly, and scalable, making them ideal for businesses of all sizes and industries.
Overall, biometric verification is a valuable tool for businesses looking to improve the security and integrity of their digital services and transactions. Premier Fintech LLC provides a range of biometric verification solutions to help businesses in Qatar and beyond take advantage of this powerful technology and stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly evolving world of digital commerce.
Passenger check-in and boarding solutions are important components of modern travel and transportation systems, helping to ensure that passengers are able to efficiently and securely board their flights or other modes of transportation.
Premier Fintech LLC provides a range of solutions for passenger check-in and boarding, including mobile check-in and boarding pass scanning applications, as well as boarding pass and passport scanners. These solutions use the latest technologies, including barcode and QR code scanning, to provide a seamless user experience and ensure that passengers can quickly and securely check in and board their flights.
In addition to passenger check-in and boarding solutions, Premier Fintech LLC offers a range of other financial technology services, including digital wallets, payment applications, and EMV Android POS application development. These solutions can help businesses streamline their operations and improve the customer experience, while ensuring the security and integrity of financial transactions.
Overall, Premier Fintech LLC is a leading provider of financial technology solutions in Qatar and beyond, with a focus on innovation, security, and customer satisfaction. Its solutions for passenger check-in and boarding, as well as its other financial technology services, are designed to meet the needs of businesses in a wide range of industries and help them stay ahead of the curve in the rapidly evolving world of digital commerce.
In addition to identity and passport reader SDK solutions, Premier Fintech LLC offers a range of other financial technology services, including digital wallets, payment applications, and EMV Android POS application development. These solutions can help businesses in a wide range of industries to streamline their operations, improve the customer experience, and enhance the security and integrity of their financial transactions.
Premier Payment Smart POS with billing and inventory application is a comprehensive business solution developed by Premier Fintech LLC. It is designed to help businesses in Qatar and beyond manage their payment processing, inventory management, and billing in a single system.
The Premier Payment Smart POS with billing and inventory application is an Android-based system that is highly customizable to meet the specific needs of different businesses. It is compatible with a wide range of payment options, including EMV chip cards, contactless payments, and mobile payments. The system also supports multiple languages and currencies, making it ideal for businesses with international customers.
In addition to payment processing, the system also includes a robust inventory management module that allows businesses to track their inventory levels and manage their stock in real-time. The billing application helps businesses generate and send invoices to customers, and keep track of their accounts receivable. These features can help businesses improve their cash flow and ensure that they have the right inventory levels to meet customer demand.
Premier Payment Smart POS with billing and inventory application is also highly secure, with advanced encryption and fraud prevention features to protect against payment fraud and data breaches. It is compliant with the latest industry standards and regulations, including PCI DSS and EMV, ensuring that businesses can process payments with confidence.
Premier Fintech LLC is a licensed company in Qatar that provides financial technology solutions to clients in the country and beyond. The company is licensed by the Qatar Financial Centre (QFC), which is a financial and business hub in Qatar that provides a range of services and support to companies operating in the country.
As a provider of financial technology solutions, Premier Fintech LLC takes part in Identity Week Europe 2023 stand number S105 in RAI Amsterdam as an exhibitor. By attending the event, the company can stay up to date with the latest trends and technologies in the field of identity solutions, as well as connect with potential partners, clients, and other industry experts.
At the event, Premier Fintech LLC may showcase its solutions related to Smart POS, digital identity, including smart biometrics, identity verification, and payment applications. The company will also attend workshops and sessions to gain further insight into the latest developments in the field.
Elon Musk’s surprising decisions and shifts of social media strategy keep on coming as he manages the reins of Twitter.
His latest move has divided opinions, with some praising the serious focus on security and others calling out the advantageous step towards implementing a subscription business model to expand Twitter’s revenue streams.
All reports suggest Musk is contemplating charges for paid account users to verify themselves using the standard two-factor authentication.
On the one hand, the decision seems outlandish to set up a type of paywall for millions of users using a free platform such as Twitter. There is doubt whether users would come onboard with starting to pay to use social media sites, which could indicate that Twitter’s money-making objectives take priority to boost revenue into the stratosphere.
Judging by user popularity, two-factor authentication via text message is functional and ensures, for the most part, secured access for verifiable humans. This policy change under Musk’s new leadership has bewildered some experts which argue this may deter millions of subscribers from using the popular platform.
Musk is certainly throwing out the rulebook on Twitter’s policies to take social media strategy in a committed direction, for better or worse, dividing his own teams.
Paid-for authentication has its place
The reason is due to a rise in SMS fraud with telcos using bots accounts to pass two-factor authentication. Musk plans to cut unnecessary and costly expenditure on allowing bots to illegitimately make attempts to sign in with SMS 2FA .
Commentators have also noted that paid models could end annoying bots and finally protect security in a purposeful way, sparking wider adoption of “cyber hardening methods to support stronger identity tech adoption”, says Benji Hutchinson at Paravision.
If Twitter is expanding its revenue streams, it is better that social media more broadly focuses on user subscriptions rather than funding targeted and privacy-invading advertising, which manipulates and exploits user data.
Twitter reached a settlement in May with the FTC regarding its privacy breaches after the company was sanctioned for leveraging personal user data for personalised advertising and marketing campaigns.
Since taking over Twitter, Musk also implemented a $11 per month cost to verify paid accounts with the blue checkmark.
Twitter declined to comment on what will happen to accounts after SMS two-factor authentication is disabled on March 20.
With paid-for authentication soon to be implemented, some users may welcome the adoption of passkeys instead.
In an article posted on its support site, Twitter states: “While historically a popular form of 2FA, unfortunately we have seen phone-number based 2FA be used — and abused — by bad actors”.
This interview is with Robert Tappan, Association Executive, International Biometrics & Identity Association who recently refuted claims from some US senators that biometrics used by the Transport Security Association are invasive, anti privacy-preserving, bias and contributing to the idea of “surveillance” with new technologies. The IBIA is an advocacy and educational organisation representing the biometrics and identity technologies industry.
The questions included:
Why do you think the terms “surveillance” and “identity verification” have been conflated? What are the perceptions of facial biometrics? True or not?
Is there evidence at all to suggest face verification technology is being used in the wrong way to invade privacy?
Talking to some vendors, some say there are some inherent biases in the level of technology that are being mitigated. Do you disagree that bias in biometrics now exists?
What are the differences between surveillance and verification that you suggested in your comments?
How do these claims/ beliefs affect trust?
Describe the level of progress in America with biometric deployments and are some unfounded beliefs that biometrics are ‘threatening our democracy’ derailing progress?
The International Biometrics and Identity Association is rebutting misleading claims behind media statements released by the offices of 5 senators which conflate the terms “surveillance” and “identity verification”.
The statements call for a ban on the Transport Security Association’s use of facial biometric technology at several major airports throughout the U.S., revealing misconceptions about the way face biometric technology works by scanning and matching live facial images to identity documents. It compounds common beliefs that biometric technology is intrusive, anti privacy-preserving and bias when solution providers are increasingly achieving high NIST rankings for accuracy.
To conflate biometric technology with ‘surveillance’ is not acknowledging the many sector use cases like travel where biometrics is significantly enhancing security and delivering a seamless user experience. The TSA was founded following the 9/11 attacks which starkly highlighted the need to manage secure travel and since 2001 the Customs and Border Protection has outlined its roadmap to deployment biometric touchpoints across all U.S. airports. However, sloppy reporting and politically-charged debate around biometrics has enabled a false narrative around biometric innovation today to fester.
Speaking to Robert Tappan, Managing Director of IBIA, in an exclusive interview for IdentityWeek.net, he shared that a spate of negative articles and a tide of negative reporting which surfaced in December was creating a false narrative around biometrics.
China, for example, have used real surveillance to have control over their citizens lives, embarking on a regime of surveillance.
The technology is actually an incredible asset in many industry use cases such as travel which enhances security and a seamless consumer experience.
Tappan refuted the terminology which suggests biometrics is an invasive technology for surveillance.
The differences between surveillance and verification are substantial, the press release said, and bias is not unfairly discriminating some demographic groups as it has been portrayed.
“These statements belie a common but incorrect belief about the way these technologies work” he said.
“Either these Senators are not spending the time to understand the technology being implemented, or the Senators themselves are choosing to ignore the reality of the technology. If it’s the latter, then at best, it’s political grandstanding. At worst, it’s another example of demonising a government agency just trying to do a better job on a mission which protects us all,” Tappan added.
The IBIA is an advocacy organisation representing the biometrics and identity technologies industry in U.S.
The pandemic drove an unprecedented shift towards digital processes including Right to Work checks to validate employees.
Whether done remotely or in-person, a study undertaken by TrustID has concluded that identity validation as part of Right to Work checks only supports fast and assured recruitment processes.
TrustID is a frontrunner in providing identity document verification, recently collecting responses from over 130 business professionals about the challenges and objectives of recruitment processes, which involve Right to Work checks to vet candidates’ identity credentials.
The majority (96%) of respondents agreed RtW checks are essential and identity validation technology from selected IDSPs could approve candidates on the same day as an interview or when an offer is made.
However, with reducing talent pools in a competitive market, current standards of RtW checks are unsatisfactory, running the risk of losing out on new talent to competitors.
Tony Machin, CEO of TrustID said: “Identity validation technology means that Right to Work checks can be done on the same day as an interview or when an offer is made. This helps companies that use an identity service provider (IDSP) to avoid missing out on their choice of candidate.”
On the whole, 62% of respondents believed remote checks brought by COVID-19 regulations were easier and faster than pre-pandemic times but only 20% admitted to feeling confident that they could identify a fraudulent document.
Machin added, “Right to Work checks have been subject to many changes over recent years. Using a certified IDSP that keeps pace with regulatory changes gives an employer confidence that it is compliant and streamlines staff on-boarding for faster recruitment.”
60% of people said they currently use technology from an IDSP or an applicant tracking service (ATS) linked to an IDSP, with a further 17% considering using technology for their RtW checks.
TrustID offers a range of accurate, affordable and easily accessible identity verification services that protect both private sector organisations and public sector bodies such as NHS Trusts and local authorities from exposure to fraud.
A live tender is being advertised by the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology for a supplier that can deliver a full literature review of existing research indicating the identity-enabled fraud landscape.
The chosen supplier will support in enabling widespread use of digital identities in the UK and enable transparency over fraud information sharing to detect and prevent fraud incidents.
Applications can be received until 12pm on 24th February when the tender will commence for 25 days, valued at £25K-£50K.
