Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:
Congress Denies HART Funding, Demands Audit
The US Congress has directed the Department of Homeland Security to commission an independent audit of its Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology (HART) system this year. It’s a signal of frustration with the handling of the program – intended as a replacement of the legacy Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) – with Congress also rejecting a White House request for $38 million in funding for HART. Instead, Congress has approved another $20 million for HART and $36 million for IDENT, citing “mismanagement of the program and the program’s failure to achieve initial operating capacity”. In demanding the independent audit in the fiscal 2023 omnibus bill, lawmakers indicated that it must be conducted in compliance with NIST standards “for independent verification and validation,” and directed the DHS to disclose its agreements with other government agencies including law enforcement.
MOSIP Gains Traction
About 80 percent of the Philippines’ population has now been enrolled in a national ID program based on the Modular Open-Source Identity Platform (MOSIP) developed by the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore (IIITB). As The Hindu reports, MOSIP is now being used for identity programs in Morocco, Sri Lanka, Uganda, Ethiopia, Republic of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, and the Togolese Republic, in addition to the Philippines. The program is funded in part by the Gates Foundation, which has been backing the use of digital ID solutions to help the world attain sustainability goals.
Lawyer Alleges Wrongful Arrest Based on Facial Recognition
Police in Louisiana arrested the wrong person in connection with a luxury purse robbery after getting a lead using facial recognition technology, according to the falsely accused man’s lawyer. The Georgia man, Randall Reid, says he has never even been to Louisiana, where the robbery took place. The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, which is alleged to have use the biometric tech to identify the man, has not responded to inquiries from news media.
Iris Scanning POS Gets FIDO Biometric Component Certification
Poland-based FinTech startup PayEye has obtained FIDO Biometric Component Certification with respect to its eyePOS solution, which uses iris recognition to process biometric payments that do not require the buyer to present cash, a payment card, or any other piece of hardware in order to complete a transaction. The Certification was obtained via testing by iBeta, which entailed a Presentation Attack Detection (PAD) evaluation in which PayEye demonstrated a zero percent error rate. The news comes after PayEye’s announcement of a payments pilot with the retail chain Komputronik toward the end of last year.
BIO-key Prepares Executive Shakeup
BIO-key has appointed two new executives in anticipation of the retirement of Chief Revenue Officer Fred Corsentino. Galen Rodgers, previously the Director of Channel Sales Americas for Ping Identity, is BIO-key’s new Vice President of Channels, and will report to Chairman and CEO Michael DePasquale. Chad Carter, meanwhile, comes to the company from a position as Wallix’s VP of Sales for North America. As BIO-key’s new VP of North America Sales, he will report to Mark Cochran, who heads BIO-key’s popular PortalGuard single sign-on business.
Banking Startup Embraces iDenfy Onboarding
Selfie-based onboarding specialist iDenfy has found its newest client in Mano Bank (stylized ‘mano,bank’), a fellow Lithuanian startup. Founded in 2019, Mano Bank provides digital-focused financial services, and is now using iDenfy’s technology to remotely verify customers’ identity documents and check them against a corresponding selfie photo, with iDenfy’s KYC experts also manually checking onboarding transactions as a security backstop.
FPC Gets First Volume Order for Under-Display Sensor
Fingerprint Cards has received its first volume order for its optical under-display fingerprint sensor, the FPC1632. The order comes from the same unnamed Asia-based smartphone OEM involved in a design win announced last July, and represents serious traction in Fingerprints’ effort to capture a significant share of a growing new mobile biometrics market. “I am very pleased that we are now starting to generate revenue from an entirely new product segment in our portfolio: under-display sensors,” said FPC’s President of Mobile, PC & Access China, Haiyuan Bu.
Precise Licenses Tech to Isorg
Precise Biometrics has established a licensing agreement with French organic optical sensor specialist Isorg that will see the former’s fingerprint algorithms incorporated into Isorg solutions. The two-year agreement will provide Precise Biometrics with SEK 11 million, or roughly 1.04 million USD, in licensing and support fees, and potential future royalties based on sensors sold and implemented in mobile phones.
Another Remote Identity Verification Specialist Faces BIPA Lawsuit
FaceTec has become the latest selfie-based identity verification specialist to become ensnared in a lawsuit under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The class action lawsuit concerns the use of FaceTec’s technology in verifying users of online dating apps and other services, alleging that FaceTec failed to properly obtain users’ consent and to provide the notices required under BIPA. The news comes alongside similar allegations against Yoti, another remote onboarding specialist.
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January 3, 2022 – by Alex Perala
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