Guangzhou pilot lets consumers use WeChat to create an official digital ID

WeChat poised to become China’s official electronic ID system — South China Morning Post — “The WeChat ID programme was co-developed by the research institute of the Ministry of Public Security and Tencent’s WeChat team, and supported by various banks and several other government departments. The project is expected to help deter online identity theft, as facial recognition technology is used to verify applicants before their virtual ID cards get authorised. Those verified will be able to use their WeChat ID to register in hotels and apply for government services without the need of bringing their physical ID cards.”


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Seat tests grocery deliveries direct to customers’ cars

Seat and Saba present Droppit, the app that delivers your grocery shopping directly to your parked car — Seat — “The six-month pilot test of this project, in collaboration with virtual supermarket Deliberry and courier company Glovo, will be carried out in two car parks managed by Saba in the city of Barcelona… The customer leaves their car keys with Saba staff, who are responsible for accompanying the delivery person, identifying the car and placing the order in it. In the future, the aim is to make the process easier using technology that enables the service providers to access cars using fingerprint recognition supported by the app itself.”


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Burger bar to let customers order and pay by face in California

Cali Group demonstrates face based loyalty program pilot in its restaurant operating division — Cali Group — “The kiosks use NEC’s NeoFace facial recognition software to identify registered customers and pull up their loyalty accounts and order preferences… Also in 2018, the platform will be used to allow customers to pay using their faces.”


US survey finds growing support for biometrics as a replacement for passwords and PINs

Visa survey reveals consumers are ready to say goodbye to passwords — Visa — “Seventy percent of respondents find biometrics easier than passwords and 61% consider it faster. Fewer than a third of consumers use unique passwords for each of their accounts. Fifty percent of consumers responded that the top benefit of using biometrics is eliminating the need to remember multiple passwords or PINs, followed by 46% who said that biometrics is more secure than passwords or PINs for verifying identity.”


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Japanese bank to combine fingerprint and vein verification for cardless transactions at ATMs and teller windows

Mofiria provides Aeon Bank with new hybrid biometric device — Mofiria — “Aeon Bank Ltd, a Japanese new style bank, has announced that they have introduced a whole new biometrics authentication system to their ATMs and teller windows, which allows the customers to do any bank transactions without using a bank card nor entering PIN number… Aeon Bank has introduced this system to five branches for the proof of concept and they have a plan to introduce it to all branches by October 2018.”



Samsung looks to palm recognition to secure mobile devices

Samsung’s new phones might literally read the palm of your hand — Futurism — “Recent patent filings by the South Korean electronics giant show that the company may be investing in yet another means of biometric scanning. Samsung’s palm recognition technology would join other biometrics, such as facial recognition and fingerprint scanning, along with standard passwords, pin numbers, and patterns as a means of securing your device.”


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EU gives payments industry 18 months to implement strong customer authentication

Payment Services Directive (PSD2): Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) enabling consumers to benefit from safer and more innovative electronic payments — European Commission — “The RTS makes strong customer authentication (SCA) the basis for accessing one’s payment account, as well as for making payments online. This means that to prove their identity users will have to provide at least two separate elements out of these three: something they know (a password or PIN code); something they own (a card, a mobile phone); and something they are (biometrics, eg fingerprint or iris scan)… The use of SCA will become mandatory 18 months after the entry into force of the RTS, ie once the RTS is published in the Official Journal of the EU, scheduled for September 2019.”


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Millennials back biometrics and AI for payments

Millenials driving demand for AI and biometric security — Vocalink — “77% of millennials thought that new AI technologies such as virtual assistants and hands-free speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home are appealing as payment devices. In addition, 28% of millennials have used fingerprint technologies to verify payments and 35% of the group now believes that fingerprint technology is the most secure method of verification followed by iris scanning at 22%.”


Acuity forecasts a trillion biometric transactions in the cloud by 2022

Biometrics in the cloud to authenticate more than one trillion transactions annually by 2022 — Acuity Market Intelligence — “By 2022 more than 5.5bn biometrically-enabled mobile devices will create a global platform that supports one trillion cloud-based biometric transactions annually… Acuity projects annual biometric transaction revenue will increase from US$474m in 2017 to $18bn in 2022 exceeding a 100% CAGR.”



Sberbank to build ID platform that supports face, voice and retina biometrics

Sberbank and VisionLabs to build biometric identification platform — Sberbank — “Sberbank announces the signing of a deal to acquire a block of shares in VisionLabs, a global leader of the facial recognition market… The investment in VisionLabs is a major first step by Sberbank to build a biometrics platform of Sberbank’s ecosystem, involving face, voice and retina identification, as well as other biometric factors… This will allow the creation of a unique biometric identifier that will let Sberbank clients access any service.”


Apple details its face detection algorithm

An on-device deep neural network for face detection — Apple — “Apple started using deep learning for face detection in iOS 10. With the release of the Vision framework, developers can now use this technology and many other computer vision algorithms in their apps. We faced significant challenges in developing the framework so that we could preserve user privacy and run efficiently on-device. This article discusses these challenges and describes the face detection algorithm.”


Video shows that children could use Face ID to unlock their parents’ iPhone X

This 10-year-old was able to unlock his mom’s iPhone using Face ID — The Verge — “While Apple has admitted that false positives can happen, it was thought this could only happen with twins, or siblings under the age of 13. However, a new video has popped up showing a 10-year-old unlocking his mother’s iPhone, suggesting that any family members who bear enough resemblance might be able to bypass the system.”


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UK supermarkets to test face recognition for proof-of-age at self-checkout tills

Supermarket self-service tills replace ID checks with facial recognition — The Telegraph — “The technology will be used to remove in-person age checks when customers are buying alcohol and other age restricted items… Using Yoti at a self service till would involve a QR code showing up on the checkout screen, which could be scanned by the app. The Yoti app would then scan the shopper’s face to confirm their identity, and would then connect to the till over the internet to verify the purchase.”


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Facebook applies for patent for face recognition payments in stores

Facial recognition identification for in-store payment transactions — USPTO — “One or more implementations involve receiving a payment request to initiate an in-store payment transaction between a user and a merchant, the payment request including an image of the user. One or more embodiments identify a payment account for the user based on the image and send a payment confirmation request to a client device of the user. Additionally, one or more embodiments process the in-store payment transaction based on a confirmation response received from the client device.”


Cybersecurity firm demos mask that can unlock an iPhone X

This $150 mask beat Face ID on the iPhone X — The Verge — “Vietnamese cybersecurity firm Bkav claims it’s been able to bypass the iPhone X’s Face ID feature using a mask… The firm does stress that the product is just a proof of concept at the moment and more research is needed… ‘Exploitation is difficult for normal users, but simple for professional ones,’ Bkav said.”


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Chinese retail giant to open unmanned stores with face recognition and RFID tags

Suning to open four new unmanned stores in China — Suning — “Highlights include: Facial recognition — After linking a bank card and going through the facial recognition on Suning Finance app, customers will be able to enter the store simply by letting the camera scan their faces at the entrance. Effortless shopping experience — To check out, shoppers only need to carry their goods along the payment pathway. The system will automatically recognize the shoppers and their items with the facial recognition and RFID technology – making the entire check-out process shorter than 15 seconds.”


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ABI: 160m cards with embedded fingerprint sensors to be shipped by 2022

Biometric payment cards to boost banking industry security — ABI Research — “Fingerprint embedded payment cards will enjoy an impressive growth over the next years reaching 160 million shipments by 2022 with a five-year CAGR standing at approximately 400%. While the Middle East, Africa and North America will be among the first regions geographically in which higher shipments are expected during 2018, forecasts indicate that Europe and Asia Pacific will have a larger penetration rate over the coming years.”


Commbank adds Face ID to mobile banking app

The new face of banking — Commonwealth Bank of Australia — “From today, iPhone X users will be able to use Face ID to securely log in to the CommBank app. ‘Our customers use secure fingerprint logins on the CommBank app about 30m times a month,’ said Pete Steel, Commonwealth Bank executive general manager of digital. ‘Extending that functionality to Face ID is part of our ongoing work to provide a better banking experience to our customers through simple, easy and secure features.'”