The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has announced the release of three new biometric databases aimed at helping accelerate the development of more secure and accurate biometric identification systems. The databases — knows as SD 300, SD 301, and SD 302 — contain different types of biometric data collected at different times including…
Ghana’s Electoral Commission (or “EC”) announced that it plans to pursue a new biometric voter registration system for the coming general elections in 2020. This news comes despite the fact that the current system — which made Ghana the first country in the world to use biometric voter registration and has been in place since…
Democratic junior senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware) is cosponsoring a bipartisan piece of legislation that aims to regulate the use of facial recognition technology on the federal level. The other sponsor for the bill — known as The Facial Recognition Technology Warrant Act — is Utah Republican senator Mike Lee (R-UT). It would require federal law…
NEC Technologies India — a subsidiary of Japanese tech giant NEC Corporation — has been awarded a contract from the Airports Authority of India to supply biometric technology at four airports around the country for the Digi Yatra project. The biometric tech will be launched by NEC in phases before the end of 2020 at…
The Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee is backing the creation of a new post for a biometrics commissioner, however they are calling for greater powers to be granted to the position to ensure that personal data is kept safe and privacy is protected. MSPs on the committee concluded that the need for a biometrics commissioner to…
The Transportation Security Authority (TSA) has announced plans to increase the testing of biometric facial recognition systems at airport security checkpoints and baggage drops by its agents next year, as it evaluates the technology for a potential future deployment. The aim of the program is to help TSA officers with the process of passenger and…
United Overseas Bank (UOB) has announced the launch of fingerprint and facial recognition authentication methods for customers of its TMRW digital banking brand. With the announcement, TMRW, the first mobile-only bank in Thailand, also becomes the first bank in Thailand to offer multimodal biometric authentication. “At TMRW, we are committed to making banking simpler, more…
The Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency has announced it has abandoned its plans to require U.S. citizens entering and exiting the country to submit to facial scans as an expansion of its Biometric Exit program. “There are no current plans to require U.S. citizens to provide photographs upon entry and exit from the United…
The Face Recognition Company (FRC), a software development company specializing in facial recognition security technology, has announced that it will be unveiling its multi-camera facial recognition system at the International Security Expo in London next week. FRC’s ‘ultra-accurate’ system is based on using multiple cameras — up to five at a time — to provide…
Schools in the district of Lockport, New York, are closer to being allowed to use facial recognition technology to monitor persons on school property after the New York State Education Department outlined four additional steps required in order for permission to be granted. In a statement to local news outlet 2WGRZ, an official said that…
A Nestle grocery store in Spain is partnering with CaixaBank to trial a new facial payment system in an attempt to speed up customer transactions ahead of the coming holiday shopping season. Payments are made using the Face to Pay Nestle Market app, where users are required to register their personal information along with credit…
“… the company explained that YOUNiQ now features passive liveness detection, meaning it can detect whether an authorized user is indeed physically present during a scan…” Precise Biometrics has added liveness detection to its YOUNiQ biometric platform, the company has announced. First announced earlier this year, the YOUNiQ platform represents Precise Biometrics’ expansion beyond the…
The Savelovsky court of Moscow has ruled against the notion that the use of facial recognition cameras is in violation of the Russian Constitution with regards to the collection of personal data and an individual’s rights to privacy. In a case brought forward by plaintiff Alena Popova the courts declared that her arrest in 2018…
A lawsuit has been filed in Illinois against WeWork, global real-estate company and provider of shared office space, alleging the use of facial recognition scans without consent. The plaintiff in the case, Elliot Osborne, alleges that “When individuals arrive at a WeWork office space, each Defendant requires them to have their facial geometry scanned to…
Jumio, the AI-powered trusted identity as a service provider, announced gains in the speed and accuracy of its verification services, as well as a more intuitive user experience. These gains come after a two year period during which Jumio invested heavily automation enabled through a variety of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and optical character recognition…
China has begun testing surveillance technology in its northwestern Xinjiang region that aims to predict an individuals’ behavior by reading their emotional state. The technology uses cameras to scan people’s faces and ‘read’ their facial expressions in order to “identify criminal suspects by analyzing their mental state… to prevent illegal acts including terrorism and smuggling,”…
In what many domestic news outlets are describing as a first, a Chinese citizen is suing a theme park over its use of biometric technology on attendees. The park in question is a safari park in Hangzhou, which previously linked park passes to the fingerprints of pass holders, but recently moved to a new system…
A lawsuit that was filed by an employee against soft drink maker Keurig Dr. Pepper Inc. in Illinois that claims the company violated the state’s biometric privacy laws has been moved to a federal court at the request of the defendant. The plaintiff for the case — Gio Villanueva, an employee of Dr. Pepper in…
Biometrics News – Facial Recognition An Israeli artificial intelligence startup with investments from a number of American companies including Microsoft has been linked to the biometric surveillance of Palestinians. AnyVision is an international tech company based in Israel that raised $78 million in June from an investment group including American tech giant Microsoft. One of…