A multi-city teahouse chain in India is coming under fire for its use of facial recognition to identify customers. Ostensibly, the face scanning technology is used only in Chaayos’ loyalty program, enabling the teahouse chain to link enrolled customers’ payment accounts to their faces. But one unhappy customer – and editor of what the BBC…
Indian privacy advocates are once again voicing their concerns as the government of India prepares to hand out a landmark contract for a national facial recognition surveillance system. The Prime Minister opened the bidding for the contract back in September, for a system that is supposed to help an understaffed police force identify criminals and…
The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has announced plans to move toward the implementation of biometric transit cards, making them the first transit provider in India to do so. The system as proposed will be designed with the aim of making the ticketing process faster, reducing the number of people travelling without proper tickets, and…
Biometrics News – Time and Attendance The ongoing internet shutdown in Kashmir has limited the effectiveness of biometric attendance tracking programs for government and call center employees in the region. India cut off the area’s access to the internet on August 5th, isolating the region in the midst of a legislative battle in which India…
The biometrics industry spans across a wide range of technologies and sectors, and this week’s roundup of FindBiometrics’ top news stories runs the gamut. First up is news about an extra-early round of funding for India-based digital identity startup Syntizen Technologies. The company didn’t disclose how much money it brought in through the funding round,…
The digital identity startup Syntizen Technologies has completed a successful Pre-Series A funding round, receiving an undisclosed amount of money from Mastercard and ACPL, a biometric solutions provider. Syntizen is based in Hyderabad, India, and plans to use the funds to improve its products and fuel its domestic and global expansion. “Mastercard’s investment is…
India is moving forward with plans to set up a massive facial recognition surveillance scheme. The proposed system would centralize biometric data from multiple national databases, and would gather new data through a network of facial recognition cameras that would be set up throughout the country. Officials are hoping that the new system will help…
Aadhaar is rapidly eclipsing other forms of identity in India. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) took to Twitter to announce that Aadhaar cardholders no longer need any other documents when updating some of their personal information. Instead, Indian citizens can simply bring their Aadhaar card to any Aadhaar Seva Kendra center, where they…
“This is largely in relation to the WhatsApp messaging app owned by Facebook, through which information deemed to be a public threat can be promulgated.” Facebook wants India’s Supreme Court to decide whether it can be compelled to share users’ Aadhaar information with law enforcement authorities. The company is facing similar lawsuits in four different…
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) is celebrating a major Aadhaar milestone after revealing that the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) has now been used for more than 200 million transactions. The AePS crossed the 200 million threshold sometime in the past month, with more than 66 million Indian citizens using the service in July…
“NEXT has made considerable strides in India since receiving its Aadhaar certification, and has placed a particularly strong focus on Point-of-Sale terminals.” NEXT Biometrics has partnered with the Shanghai-based SUNMI Technology to develop Point-of-Sale (POS) terminals for the Indian market. The P1 POS terminals will leverage NEXT’s fingerprint sensor technology, which was first certified for Aadhaar…
ZKTeco was back on the road recently, showcasing its biometric technologies and other solutions at the Safe India Expo in Hyderabad. As with some of the company’s recent seminar events, ZKTeco took the opportunity of Safe India Expo to highlight its Visible Light facial recognition technology. It also placed a strong emphasis on Computer Vision…
Important new certifications are opening doors for Aratek in the Indian market: The company has announced that both its Aratek A400 capacitive fingerprint scanner and its A600 optical fingerprint scanner have received certification from the Directorate of Standardization Testing and Quality Certification, or STQC. A division of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the…
Privacy advocates in India are speaking out against the growing prevalence of facial recognition technology following the debut of an extensive biometric boarding system at the country’s Bengaluru airport. The system eliminates the need for paper boarding passes and ID documents, allowing travelers to move through the airport using their face for identity verification. Proponents…
The Kempegowda International Airport (KIA) in Bengaluru, India, is rolling out a biometric boarding program in collaboration with Vision-Box. The Digi Yatra project will eventually include 350 touchpoints spread throughout the airport’s entire Terminal 1, making it the largest biometric boarding program in Asia. For now, however, the program will only be available to passengers…
NEXT Biometrics‘ roster of POS partners focused on the Indian market continues to grow, with the company announcing that it has now teamed up with Beijing-based Wiseasy. The latter will integrate NEXT Biometrics’ fingerprint sensors into POS terminals designed for compatibility with Aadhaar Enabled Payment System applications. Aadhaar is, of course, India’s pioneering biometric national…
With all the excitement currently swirling around biometric payment cards, NEXT Biometrics‘ activities in this area have received a significant share of the spotlight in recent months. The company has established itself as a major player, with recently announced partnerships with a major US payment network and ABCorp offering the latest examples of NEXT’s prominence.…
“By protecting the use of Aadhaar authentication on a voluntary basis, the central government is seeking to ensure that Aadhaar can still be used for private sector services.” India’s Parliament has passed legislation allowing citizens to voluntarily use Aadhaar as identification when opening new banking or mobile accounts. The bill, called “The Aadhaar and Other…
Nuance Communications has established a definitive agreement to sell off its India SRS division. It’s part of a larger effort on Nuance’s part to divest itself of its Subscription Revenue Services business, which is focused on mobile services in emerging markets, with the company also having recently completed the sale of its Brazil SRS division.…