Lawsuits, Passkeys, and a New VP: Identity News Digest

Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:

Anker Faces Lawsuits Over Handling of Biometric Data

A proposed class action lawsuit against Eufy security camera maker Anker Tech has been transferred to the Northern District of Illinois, and lawyers have requested that it be combined with two other legal filings against the company. The complaints all revolve around Anker’s handling of user data, after a security researcher revealed last year that a Eufy doorbell camera was sending facial recognition data to the cloud, despite Anker’s claims that Eufy cameras store the data on-device. The latest lawsuit alleges among other things, that Anker has violated the Federal Wiretap Act.

Yahoo! Japan Enables Passkey Support

Yahoo! Japan has become the latest major organization to enable support for passkeys. Originally formed through a partnership between Yahoo! and SoftBank, Yahoo! Japan is a major internet company in the country, and operates the second most popular search engine after Google. Its passkey support will enable end users to easily authenticate when logging into their accounts using their smartphone’s biometric systems or a PIN, replacing the SMS-based authentication that has so far prevailed for many users. “Passkeys solve the usability issues that FIDO authentication has traditionally faced and dramatically improve users’ difficulties in using FIDO authentication,” said Yahoo! Japan ID Division VP Yuya Ito.

FindBiometrics, MIDW Team With Access Control Resource

FindBiometrics and Mobile ID World have partnered with the Access Control Executive Brief, a leading resource for access control and IoT information founded and led by CEO Lee Odess, who also serves as the Chairman of the Security Industry Association’s Proptech Advisory Board. The organizations will be on hand at next week’s ISC West event in Las Vegas; anyone who would like to learn more about the partnership can find representatives at The Lounge Titian 2304 & 2305.

Liberia Begins Voter Registration Effort

The first phase of Liberia’s Biometric Voter Registration program kicked off today across six counties, with the National Civil Society of Liberia urging residents to head out to registration centers in order to submit their information and undergo scans through Laxton-provided technology. Despite a twisting and controversial procurement process last year, the country’s National Elections Commission testified that the biometric voting program is now on track ahead of the elections planned for October.

Veriff Names New Engineering VP

Veriff has appointed a new Vice President of Engineering. Hubert Behaghel comes to the company from Typeform, where he held the same title starting in December of 2021. Before that, he held senior engineering roles at Marks and Spencer and at Sky; he also served as a Software Development Manager at Amazon from 2012 to 2014. At Veriff, his mandate will be to “elevate its competitive expertise through industrialization and scalability,” the company explained in a statement. Veriff launched a selfie-based login solution last year, building on its existing facial recognition technology.

Motorola to Add Facial Recognition to Policing App

Motorola Solutions is working on a facial recognition system for Pronto, its mobile policing app. Speaking at the annual British Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (BAPCO) conference, a Motorola executive explained that the new “Officer Initiated Facial Recognition” (OIFR) system would be distinct from sometimes controversial Live Facial Recognition systems by requiring police officers to actively launch a biometric scan during an investigation, rather than passively operating on a continuous basis. Pronto already supports a fingerprint recognition capability.

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March 20, 2023 – by Alex Perala

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