Estonia is to test digital vaccine passports that will enable residents to prove they have been inoculated against Covid-19 as part of a project to create a globally recognised electronic certification programme... More
The governments of Denmark and Sweden have both announced that they are to develop and introduce digital vaccine certificates that will enable residents to prove they have been inoculated against Covid-19... More
Apple is to let Apple Watch users unlock their iPhone using Face ID while they are wearing a mask, without having to enter an additional passcode... More
Government asks SenseTime to lead plans for national facial recognition standards — Caixin Global — “The working group, which also includes Tencent, Xiaomi, and Ant Financial, is overseen by the National Information Technology Standardization Technical Committee (NITS), which is in turn affiliated with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It will also promote the further formulation of facial recognition standards at an international level.”
The Government of Madeira is to issue biometric cards containing an in-built fingerprint sensor to 3,400 of its citizens for the pilot test of Smart Island, a decentralized digital identity project encompassing 12 education, healthcare, port security, transport, payments, tourism and government services... More
Just under half of British consumers are ready to completely replace traditional verification methods with biometrics for withdrawing cash (46%), starting their car (45%) and unlocking their front door (41%), according to new research from Equifax... More
One Biometric API over all Android — Google — “In addition to supporting multiple biometric authentication form factors, the API has made it much easier for developers to check whether a given device has biometric sensors… In addition, the framework has built-in support for facial authentication in Android 10 so that vendors don’t need to create a custom implementation.”
Catalonia, the semi-autonomous region of Spain which includes the city of Barcelona, is to develop an electronic identity platform that “turns the citizen into owner, manager and exclusive custodian of his identity and data”... More
The government of Sierra Leone is to introduce a blockchain-based national identity system at the end of this year, enabling citizens to “grant access to approved institutions to assert and verify identity and also build credit histories,” the country’s president has announced... More
By 2024, nearly 40% of the global population will have been issued with a mobile digital identity document, Juniper Research forecasts — a total of more than three billion people... More
Consortium launches blockchain-based digital ID in S Korea — Yonhap News — “A group of major tech companies and financial institutions have joined hands to launch a blockchain-based digital identity platform available on smartphones… Samsung Electronics Co, three mobile carriers — SK Telecom Co, KT Corp and LG Uplus Corp — KEB Hana Bank, Woori Bank and Koscom, an IT subsidiary of the main stock exchange, signed an agreement to jointly develop a mobile application for the digital ID platform.”
Digital ID platforms to be used by 5bn people in 2024, as emerging economies go mobile-first — Juniper Research — “The number of people using government-issued digital identity credentials will grow by over 150% from an expected 1.7bn in 2019 to over 5bn in 2024… Mobile ID schemes take the lead over digital identity cards, with a third more users relying on apps compared to cards in the next five years.”
The Pentagon has a laser that can identify people from a distance — by their heartbeat — MIT Technology Review — “A new device, developed for the Pentagon after US Special Forces requested it, can identify people without seeing their face: instead it detects their unique cardiac signature with an infrared laser. While it works at 200 metres (219 yards), longer distances could be possible with a better laser. ‘I don’t want to say you could do it from space,’ says Steward Remaly, of the Pentagon’s Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office, ‘but longer ranges should be possible.’”
Two new resolutions passed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) will see global adoption of RFID for airport baggage tracking and a move from passengers using paper documents to a single biometric ID they can use to prove their identity at any airport anywhere in the world... More
More citizens and businesses satisfied with government digital services — Government Technology Agency of Singapore — “By the third quarter of FY19, the Government will launch ‘SG-Verify’, a facility for businesses to perform secure identity verification and data transfer through QR scanning. This will provide businesses an alternative for visitor registration and access, customer acquisition at roadshows, or any other use cases that require identification.”
Revamped ‘tap and go’ licences now available — The Queensland Times — “The updated design means the chip, which is now contained within the card, is no longer visible, allowing space for a bigger font to assist police and security staff reading the cards. The cards also have updated security features.”
Introducing Android Q Beta — Google — “In Android Q we’re extending support for passive authentication methods such as face, and adding implicit and explicit authentication flows. In the explicit flow, the user must explicitly confirm the transaction in the TEE during the authentication. The implicit flow is designed for a lighter-weight alternative for transactions with passive authentication. We’ve also improved the fallback for device credentials when needed.”
Chinese technology and retail group Alibaba has opened a hotel which uses the facial recognition biometric to secure guests’ rooms and the lifts... More
W3C approves WebAuthn as the web standard for password-free logins — VentureBeat — “The specification lets users log into online accounts using biometrics, mobile devices, and/or Fido security keys. WebAuthn is supported by Android and Windows 10. On the browser side, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge all added support last year. Apple has supported WebAuthn in preview versions of Safari since December.”
LG’s latest flagship uses your hand veins to unlock — TechCrunch — “LG says the phone’s Hand ID tech is the first to use ‘advanced palm vein authentication’ — which could well be accurate… LG’s Hand ID identifies owners by recognising the shape, thickness and other individual characteristics of the veins in the palms of their hands.”