European Union residents will be able to confirm that they have been vaccinated against Covid-19, received a negative test result or recovered from the illness using an EU-wide Digital Green Certificate by the summer, according to a legislative proposal issued by the European Commission... More
Healthcare
Sweden to introduce NFC vaccine certificates
Residents of Sweden will be able to store a digital certificate proving they have been inoculated against Covid-19 on their mobile phone or access their certificate via an NFC sticker attached to their passport by the beginning of June, the Swedish government has announced... More
Care home pilots biometric digital health passport
Staff at the Warren Manor care facility in Blackpool in the UK are piloting a digital passport that enables them to verify their Covid-19 vaccination, test or recovery status when they arrive at their workplace by scanning their finger... More
EU to introduce digital vaccination passes
The European Union is to present a legislative proposal this month for a digital ‘green pass’ vaccination certificate that will enable residents to prove that they have been inoculated against Covid-19... More
Postal Savings Bank of China trials biometric cards for digital currency payments
Chinese consumers taking part in the large-scale testing of the country’s central bank digital currency (CBDC) in Beijing over the Chinese New Year period are trialling a biometric ‘hard wallet’ card developed by the Postal Savings Bank of China... More
Japanese convenience store trials face and palm biometrics for checkout-free shopping
The Green Leaves+ shop-and-go store in the Yokohama Techno Tower Hotel in Japan is piloting a biometrics-enabled checkout-free service that allows customers to enter the store by verifying their identity with just their face and a swipe of their palm... More
Vaccine credentials coalition to develop interoperable digital Covid-19 passport
A coalition of technology and healthcare providers in the US has launched an initiative to develop a solution that will enable individuals to store and access their Covid-19 vaccination records in their digital wallet “in a secure, verifiable and privacy preserving way”... More
IATA to launch digital travel pass for contactless ID and vaccination verification
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is to roll out a digital travel pass that will enable passengers to store verified identity documents such as their e-passport and verified Covid-19 test results or inoculation records on their iPhone or Android device... More
Los Angeles to let residents add vaccination certificates to mobile wallets
Residents of Los Angeles County in the USA will be able to verify that they have been inoculated against Covid-19 and receive a reminder to have a second dose of the vaccine via a digital record they can store in their Apple Wallet or “competing Google platform”... More
Penn State researchers develop NFC sensors that can be printed directly onto human skin
Researchers at Penn State University in the USA have developed a wearable wireless sensor that can be printed directly onto a person’s skin to take precise biometric measurements and transmit data to an NFC smartphone or similar device... More
NXP explains how NFC healthcare labels and packaging can be used to combat the spread of Covid-19
PARTNER NEWS: NFC-based intelligent labels and packages offer “the safety and security necessary to help tackle the spread of Covid-19 while giving scientists, medical staff and patients the ability to interact with products so they can verify authenticity, check expiration dates and even gain useful insights into the nature of the virus,” NXP has explained... More
Madeira to pilot fingerprint biometric cards for decentralized digital IDs
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
NXP and Identiv announce breakthrough in NFC tag pricing
PARTNER NEWS: A new NFC tag inlay, jointly developed by NXP and Identiv, is now available to order at an “unrivalled” price of US$0.05 per unit, “enabling a new generation of smart products across a wide range of end markets where NFC may have been previously considered price prohibitive.”... More
L’Oréal launches wearable sensor that uses NFC to alert iPhone users to the risk of sun damage to their skin
Beauty giant L’Oréal has launched an NFC-enabled sun safety sensor that measures the wearers exposure to UV light and comes with a companion app that iPhone users can use to tap their sensor to get advice tailored to their skin tone and skin type... More
Rambus explains how tokenization can close the blockchain security gap
Tokenization technology is an immediately available solution that can be used to address critical gaps in blockchain and cryptocurrency security and promote consumer and institutional confidence, Rambus explains in a new paper which is available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
NFC Forum expands support for device pairing and personal healthcare monitoring
Four NFC Forum technical specifications speed and enable new NFC services — NFC Forum — “The Connection Handover Technical Specification 1.4 allows users to define additional specific services when two devices are paired together using other wireless communication technologies, such as Bluetooth or WLAN by a tap of an NFC-enabled device. The Personal Health Device Communication (PHDC) Technical Specification 1.2 defines the exchange of ISO/IEEE 11073 messages often used for personal healthcare devices such as heart, blood pressure and glucose monitors. Also, updates were made to the NFC Digital Protocol Technical Specification 2.1 and NFC Controller Interface (NCI) Technical Specification 2.1.”
Russian banks begin rollout of national biometric identity system
Russia’s multi-bank remote customer identification facility, which has been in beta testing since early 2018, has launched with Know Your Customer (KYC) enrolment points now working at more than 400 banks in 140 cities... More
Japanese airline ANA to enter mobile payments market
Japan airline ANA aims to build digital payments business — Financial Times — “The plan is part of a broader digital push by ANA, which hopes to build on data collected from the 31m users of its airline miles to provide a range of services including real estate, insurance and health to consumers across Japan… ‘We are aiming for ANA’s version of Alibaba’s Alipay,’ Shinya Katanozaka, ANA’s chief executive, said in an interview.”
Rambus explains how tokenization can add security to healthcare, ID, the blockchain and more
Tokenization has the potential to increase the security of a wide range of applications beyond payments, from healthcare to social security, logical access control and blockchain applications, Rambus explains in a new ebook which is now available to download from the NFC World Knowledge Centre... More
Maldives government combines passport, ID, driving license and payments on one contactless card
Maldives introduces most innovative ID card — Dermalog — “Maldives Immigration has just introduced a new, very innovative type of ID card: It can be used for payments, but also serves as a national ID card, as a driver´s license as well as a health card and insurance card. Last but not least it is also used like a passport for easy travelling… The new card is certified by the Bank of Maldives as well as by MasterCard.”