Facial Recognition in the Spotlight: This Week’s Top Biometrics Stories

Facial recognition is the star of the show in this week’s roundup of FindBiometrics’ top biometrics stories – though it does make a little space for a throwback from this past summer.

A couple of this week’s biggest stories came from well-known facial recognition vendors. FacePhi was one of them, making headlines with the news that it had secured €33 million in financing – a development should help to fuel the selfie authentication specialist’s international expansion over the coming years:

FacePhi Aims for International Expansion with €33M in Financing

Then there was Jumio, which got some attention with the news that Banking CIO Outlook had named Beam one of the top ten KYC solutions providers of the year. Jumio, which also specializes in selfie-based authentication and onboarding, acquired the KYC specialist in late summer, integrating it into its KYX Platform:

Jumio Acquisition Named as a Top 10 KYC Solutions Provider

Meanwhile, another facial recognition vendor, TECH5, announced that it had updated its flagship platform to support mask detection, a move aimed at helping clients to ensure compliance with COVID-19 health and safety guidelines:

Latest Update Brings Mask Detection to TECH5’s Biometric Platform

Facial recognition also got attention this week through more controversial news. FindBiometrics readers showed sustained interest in a story about the UK grocery chain Co-op’s covert use of facial recognition in its stores, the revelation of which was drawn the ire of British privacy advocates:

Co-op Quietly Installed Biometric Facial Recognition Cameras at UK Grocery Stores

And finally, a surprise resurgence of reader interest in a news item from the summer, when IDEMIA established a major contract to provide digital transformation services to the League of Arab States’ Council of Arab Economic Unity:

IDEMIA to Aid League of Arab States’ Digital Transformation with Digital ID, Biometrics, and Other Tech Solutions

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Stay posted to FindBiometrics next week as we continue to bring you the latest news and interviews from the exciting world of biometrics. To see the hottest stories of the week in mobile digital identity, visit our sibling site Mobile ID World.

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December 19, 2020 – by Alex Perala