Government Biometrics Month: The Roundup

Posted on October 4, 2018

The government biometrics sector never stops growing, and accordingly this has been a very eventful Government Biometrics Month at FindBiometrics. We’ve spent the last four weeks traversing this hugely diverse market area, delivering breaking news, live interviews, and deep analysis. And we capped it all off by attending a major industry event and organizing the latest entry in our renowned expert webinar series. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves – this is a huge topic, and our review of the Government Biometrics Month highlights must begin at the beginning…

The Primer

The government market is one of the most varied within the larger biometrics industry, and in an effort to keep it all straight, we kicked things off with a Primer covering some of the most essential and dynamic areas of activity in the public sector. Biometric elections, national ID programs, law enforcement, the military, airport screening, and even biometric refugee tracking – it’s all detailed with links to some major recent news items.

Be sure to check it out before delving into some of the weightier topics:

Government Biometrics Month: The Primer

The Ascent of Biometric Border Control

Speaking of weighty topics, biometric border control has established itself as one of the heftiest – but it’s attained liftoff, nevertheless. Biometric airport screening is rapidly expanding across the US, thanks in large part to the Customs and Border Protection agency’s escalating facial recognition program for travelers. But it’s also a trend that can be clearly seen more broadly around the world, with a wide range of stakeholders looking to biometrics to improve efficiency, convenience, security, and more.

This is one of the most important trends in the government sectors today, and its trajectory only extends upwards:

Government Biometrics Month 2018: The Ascent of Biometric Border Control

How the Government is Pushing the State of the Art in Biometrics

For our next feature, we took a cue from The Wire and zoomed out to get a look at the bigger system in play when we talk about government biometrics. It’s easy to focus on the myriad individual biometrics projects in which government agencies act as clients, but the government sector shapes the industry in other, possibly more impactful ways, too. Encouraging private sector R&D, performing in-house research, setting ambitious new policies – it all helps to fuel the remarkable growth underway in the industry.

Take a look at the big picture:

Government Biometrics Month: How the Government is Pushing the State of the Art in Biometrics

An Industry Convenes

Ultimately, government biometrics month culminated in two important events. One of them was FedID 2018, the biggest annual event around government identity in the US. FindBiometrics touched on one of the many topics that would be covered at the event with an in-depth discussion of biometrics in disaster relief, and then our editorial team headed to Tampa for the live event.

On the show floor, our team was struck by the preponderance of technology that has clearly been influenced by increasingly popular biometric solutions in the consumer sector, perhaps especially facial recognition; and FindBiometrics editor Peter Counter spoke to multiple executives about this trend and others. In fact, a whole host of high-level executives opened up to us in candid audio interviews conducted live from FedID, and those recordings are all available to be heard at your convenience:

FedID 2018: Crossmatch’s Nick Pattakos on Biometric Law Enforcement and the HID Global Acquisition

FedID 2018: Aware’s David Benini on Knomi, FIDO Certification, and Cloud vs On-Device

FedID 2018: NEC’s Benji Hutchinson Talks Facial Recognition and Border Control

FedID 2018: Interview with IDEMIA National Security Solutions’ Christian Schnedler

FedID 2018: IDEMIA Public Security Head Donnie Scott On Industry Candor, New Technologies, and Face ID

The Experts Talk Shop

The other big event capping off Government Biometrics Month was, of course, our webinar, “True Identity: The Biometric Government of Tomorrow”. Tackling the current state of the government biometrics sector, its challenges, opportunities, and future, the webinar was hosted by Peter Counter and featured a high-profile expert panel including:

Peter Counter, Managing Editor, FindBiometrics (moderator)
Maxine Most, Principal, Acuity Market Intelligence
Benji Hutchinson, Vice President, Federal Operations, NEC Corporation of America
Tim Meyerhoff, Director, Iris ID

It was the perfect way to conclude Government Biometrics Month – with commentary and insights from individuals operating extensively in the government biometrics sector, and expert analysis from Maxine Most of the renowned Acuity Market Intelligence firm. And a recording of the webinar is available right here:

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Thank you for joining us as we’ve tackled this huge and important topic over the past month. And please stay tuned to FindBiometrics as we carry the momentum from Government Biometrics Month forward with our ongoing reporting on all of the latest developments in the fast-moving world of biometrics.