IDEMIA will be showcasing a variety of biometric security solutions at this week’s Milipol Paris event, which runs from November 19 to 22. The technology on display is primarily designed for law enforcement and government organizations. IDEMIA’s offerings have been slotted into three separate categories based on the intended purpose of each solution. Some of…
A pair of senators from both sides of the political aisle have tabled a new bill that would place restrictions on the use of facial recognition technology by law enforcement agencies. The Facial Recognition Technology Warrant Act — sponsored by Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) — would require law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant and…
INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock advocated for biometric security measures at a recent Project Kalkan meeting in Tajikistan. Founded in 2004, Project Kalkan is a 15-country initiative that seeks to reduce the threat of terrorism in central Asia. The members of Project Kalkan share information about terrorist individuals and organizations, and coordinate their anti-terrorism operations…
Hong Kong police have access to facial recognition technology, but it isn’t clear if they have deployed it in their response to ongoing public protests, reports the South China Morning Post. Citing anonymous individuals who are familiar with the matter, the report says that Hong Kong’s police force has been contracting facial recognition technology from…
The United States ranks just as poorly as the worst European Union members when it comes to privacy laws and government surveillance, according to a new analysis from Comparitech. Conducted by privacy advocate and tech journalist Paul Bischoff, the analysis scores various countries out of five, with 4.1-5 indicating that a country ‘upholds privacy standards…
Detroit lawmakers are expressing concern about law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology. City council member Roy McCalister, Jr. will be discussing the technology at an upcoming community forum, while US Representative Brenda Lawrence is planning to introduce legislation that would regulate the technology at the federal level. The Detroit Board of Police Commissioners formally…
With September coming to a close, it’s time to take a look back at some of FindBiometrics’ featured coverage of Government Biometrics Month. The government sector is one of the most important components of the broader biometrics industry – indeed, it’s a driving force – so it’s always well worth taking a look at some…
Law enforcement’s unmonitored use of facial recognition technology has come under increasing scrutiny in the past few months. Bernie Sanders has echoed San Francisco and called for a complete ban on the police use of the technology, while Microsoft recently stated that it will refuse to sell its facial recognition tech for mass surveillance. With…
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…
The Australian state of Victoria has uploaded all of its driver’s license photos to the National Driver Licence Facial Recognition Solution (NDLFRS), a comprehensive facial recognition database maintained by the federal government’s Department of Home Affairs. For the moment, the images in the database will only be available to VicRoads and Victoria Police. The Victorian…
Zion Market Research has released a new report that predicts that the global biometric technology market will hit $59.43 billion by 2025, climbing from $17.16 billion in 2018. The final figure represents a CAGR of 19.42 percent. The forecast is nearly identical to that of Grand View Research, which projected a $59.31 billion global biometrics…
The government market has always been one of the key drivers of the overall biometrics industry. That’s partly because for a long time, the government sector pretty much was the biometrics industry; other areas, like consumer-facing biometrics and FinTech, are much more recent phenomena. But the government sector has also played an outsized role because…
Macau police have announced plans for a facial and object recognition trial that leverages the city’s extensive network of CCTV surveillance cameras. Fifty cameras will be selected for the facial recognition test, while another 50 will be selected for license plate recognition. The cameras are being installed as part of Macau’s ongoing, four-phase rollout of…
Sri Lanka police are planning to roll out a new face recognition surveillance system in an effort to track down wanted criminals. The system was discussed with Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, and will be deployed alongside a database that contains information about subjects who have been ducking the authorities and avoiding capture. The criminal…
Police have now identified the three suspects involved in a brazen jewellery heist in New York that made headlines over the weekend, and the NYPD says it’s thanks to biometric technology. The heist occurred at Avianne & Co. Jewelers, where three men held up the employees at gunpoint, subdued them with zip ties and duct…
ZKTeco‘s ongoing roadshow has finally come to the US, with the company having recently showcased its offerings at the Annual Summer Conference for the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association. As the company explained in a new post on its website, the Tennessee Sheriffs’ Association is a non-profit organization founded in 1971, and its led by a director…
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost has announced that law enforcement officers will now need to undergo training in order to gain access to the state’s Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway (OHLEG), which includes the state’s facial recognition database. Until then, the AG is cutting off access to thousands of state officials, dropping the number of people…
NEC Australia is taking the Australian government to court for the unexpected termination of a Biometric Identification Services (BIS) contract. The contract in question was first signed in 2016, when Australia’s CrimTrac (now the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission) enlisted NEC Australia to upgrade the biometric capabilities of Australia’s state, federal, and territorial police. The BIS…
The Orlando Police Department is giving up on its trial deployment of Amazon’s Rekognition platform, once again ending its on again/off again relationship with the tech giant. The facial recognition tech was supposed to be part of a surveillance pilot that would allow the OPD to track suspicious individuals through the city in real time.…