BT/ Idemia strengthens Microsoft ties with new Entra Verified ID integration

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Paradigm

20 min readFeb 26, 2024

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Biometrics biweekly vol. 83, 12th February — 26th February

TL;DR

Idemia Public Security (IPS) has been recognized as a Microsoft Entra Verified ID partner for remote onboarding
Tinder is rolling out its ID verification provided by FaceTec to users in the U.S., UK, Brazil, and Mexico following a successful pilot in Australia and New Zealand, which showed 67 percent more matches for verified accounts
FinCEN underlines financial sector collaboration to address digital identity threat
IDnow, IOTA Foundation, and others join a compliance consortium for European AML
ABIS upgrades: Innovatrics and Neurotechnology each improve law enforcement tools
Ekemp biometric ID card enrollment suite registers new speed test milestone
NEC facial recognition takes the top score in half of the latest NIST 1:N test categories
ROC posts best latent fingerprint matching speed in NIST test with new algorithm
ZeroBiometrics selected by mobile security platform for biometric ZKP authentication
Suprema introduces on-device biometric authentication for physical access control
Youverse introduces a decentralized face biometric authentication platform
ComplyCube receives UK certification for biometric age verification
OPC says Canadian agencies needed better authentication tools to prevent breach
Wizz dials up biometrics from Yoti to prevent sextortion, achieve EU compliance
Flurry of deals to secure ID verification and KYC in banking, gambling, rentals
World Bank ID4D report shows govt-issued IDs still limited in digital capabilities
White hat hacker reveals vulnerability in Germany’s digital ID
Thailand deploying digital IDs in economic zone to boost business
Vietnam targets digital transformation of public services with DNA-backed ID
UIDAI expected to advise risk assessment before using Aadhaar for age proofing
Luxembourg plans digital wallet, Bhutan uptake slows, Ukraine expands capabilities
London, Montreal subways trial surveillance for public nuisance, suicide prevention
Airport face biometrics systems arrive in the Philippines, Nigeria, and Spain
Estonia outlines procurement plans for digital ID app
Soft biometrics experts wanted teams tabling proposals for the IARPA video re-ID system
SenseTime wins deals in Saudi Arabia in return for investment in domestic firms
Sora’s AI video has people gasping but have they already forgotten OnlyFake?
Biometric industry events. And more!

Biometrics Market

The Biometric system market size is projected to grow from USD 36.6 billion in 2020 to USD 68.6 billion by 2025; it is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 13.4% during the forecast period. The increasing use of biometrics in consumer electronic devices for authentication and identification purposes, the growing need for surveillance and security with the heightened threat of terrorist attacks, and the surging adoption of biometric technology in automotive applications are the major factors propelling the growth of the biometric system market.

Biometric Research & Development

Idemia strengthens Microsoft ties with new Entra Verified ID integration

Idemia Public Security (IPS) has been recognized as a Microsoft Entra Verified ID partner for remote onboarding, according to a press release. The biometrics arm of the recently-trisected digital identity and security firm will provide liveness and document verification technology for Microsoft Entra Verified ID, expanding on the two companies’ existing business relationships.

Ea Chaillioux, VP of strategic alliances for Idemia Public Security, says the biometrics-focused division is proud to strengthen its collaboration with Microsoft, as it continues to grow in the fields of public security, travel and transportation, and access control.

“This collaboration enables users to authenticate themselves easily, accessibly, and securely and with a fully digital experience during the remote onboarding process,” says Chaillioux.

Selfie and document capture using a smartphone allows users to create a trusted identity that they can store as a digital credential in the Microsoft Authenticator app and subsequently use for authentication in a variety of contexts, such as secure access to sensitive data and account enrollment and recovery.

“Entra Verified ID’s Face Check compares a user’s real-time facial image against a signed and trusted image embedded into a digital credential held by the user based on their government issued ID or credentials issued by an employer,” says Ankur Patel, head of product for Entra Verified ID. “We are pleased to partner with Idemia as one of the leading identity verification providers, so organizations can ensure only the correct person has access to apps and devices.”

Idemia’s subdivision also led to the establishment of a secure payments division, Idemia Secure Transactions (IST), and a smart identity division, Idemia Smart Identity (ISI). The company recently announced its role in the opening of automated passenger gates for foreigners arriving at Singapore’s Changi airport.

Tinder expands video selfie biometrics after pilot shows more matches made

Who knew selfie biometrics make people more attractive? Tinder is rolling out its ID verification to users in the U.S., UK, Brazil, and Mexico following a successful pilot in Australia and New Zealand, which showed 67 percent more matches for verified accounts.

Tinder’s ID verification is provided by FaceTec, with the user’s face biometrics matched against a government-issued ID.

Video selfie biometrics will reach Brazil and the UK this spring and roll out in the U.S. and Mexico by summer, Tinder says in an announcement.

There were 70,000 romance scams costing victims $1.3 billion in the U.S. in 2022, according to FTC stats. In this context, a recent TransUnion survey showed 87 percent of users want dating platforms to carry out identity verification.

The move is being applauded by domestic violence and sexual assault advocacy No More for providing additional assurance that those using the app are who they claim to be.

Users who have completed biometric ID verification, which includes an age check, get a blue checkmark. Despite the conviction of users and advocates that biometric ID verification makes dating apps safer, some consumers are resistant to the change.

Tinder parent Match is already facing lawsuits under Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act, and now another has been filed by a user of Latino dating app Chispa, the Cook County Record reports. As in the previously filed suits, the company is alleged to have failed to meet BIPA’s informed consent rules and to have shared biometric data with third parties. Near-identical allegations were also filed by the same legal team against Match apps BLK and Hinge.

A survey from GetApp shows 63 percent of consumers do not believe biometrics are sufficiently accurate, up from 38 percent in 2022. Only 5 percent of consumers are confident in the ability of businesses to protect biometric data, down from 28 percent in 2022. Confidence in fingerprint, face, and voice biometrics each declined by 11 and 14 percent.

ABIS upgrades: Innovatrics and Neurotechnology each improve law enforcement tools

The ninth generation of Innovatrics’ automated biometric identification system (ABIS) has been released with new algorithms and a revamped user interface.

ABIS 9 features a new latent print matching algorithm, which recently scored top marks in NIST’s ELFT benchmark. The ABIS is intended to serve a variety of applications, but with special emphasis on law enforcement uses, according to the announcement.

The new version of Innovatrics’ ABIS also includes an updated minutiae-extraction algorithm, which the company says delivers significantly better performance than its predecessor, and an advanced tenprint identification algorithm. The speed of the ABIS has been improved, and its memory footprint reduced, each by four times, Innovatrics states. The ABIS also includes iris recognition and DNA processing algorithms.

“Innovatrics ABIS utilizes the world’s top-performing algorithms based on NIST benchmarks to deliver unparalleled accuracy and efficiency in biometric systems. Our priority is to continuously innovate and develop these algorithms for more efficient law enforcement and civil applications,” says Matúš Kapusta, ABIS business unit director.

Kapusta says the enrollment process has been made more streamlined in the new version of the ABIS, with animations to guide users. New modules for law enforcement use cases have also been added.

Neurotechnology has released a new version of its MegaMatcher software suite, including its ABIS and SDK.

The new MegaMatcher 13.1 includes a new voice biometrics algorithm, an enhanced face-matching algorithm and functionality improvements for use in criminal investigations, the company says.

MegaMatcher ABIS now supports hierarchical galleries, allowing data to be sorted by different criteria like regions, cities and local stations for either civil or criminal applications.

Ekemp biometric ID card enrollment suite registers new speed test milestone

Chinese biometrics provider Ekemp has announced its VigoBOX II ID card enrollment hardware recently reached a new speed level in an independent testing conducted by German testing, inspection and certification firm SGS-TÜV Saar.

According to the announcement, the new test record obtained by Ekemp’s most advanced biometric suite reflects the hardware’s ability to complete biometric enrollment for IDs and production within a second.

The VigoBOX biometric registration kit is a portable and easy-to-use product designed with multi-modal biometric data capture capabilities for voter enrollment and identity registration. It provides ID solutions for governments, law enforcement agencies, business enterprises and social services.

Commenting on the speed test results, Ekemp Chief Executive Officer Gabriel Chen underlines the company’s commitment to providing solutions for innovative and efficient data capture during citizen registration processes.

The official notes that the feat also highlights the company’s prowess in providing “tailored solutions based on the customer’s specific information registration needs and project application environment.”

The flagship suite, per the company, embodies cutting-edge technology and many years of research and development in biometric fingerprint technology, and includes a fingerprint scanner built with Integrated Biometrics’ Kojak and Suprema’s (now Xperix’) RealScan-G10, surpassing traditional fingerprint devices in size, power consumption, portability and reliability, according to the announcement.

The kit also includes options for FAP20, FAP30 and FAP50 fingerprint scanners (FBI certified, 500DPI and liveness detection), dual iris scanner supporting ISO19794–6, high speed and high accuracy 2D/2D barcode scanning module, contact and contactless smart card readers, instant card issuance with multiple printer options, and a state-of-the-art electromagnetic signature module integrated with a stylus.

NEC facial recognition takes top score in half of latest NIST 1:N test categories

NEC has claimed the highest biometric accuracy score in four of eight categories in the latest assessment from the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology’s 1:N Identification track, as of the January 22, 2024 report.

NEC scored the top accuracy assessment for matching mugshots against a database of 12 million, at 99.88 percent. The company’s biometric algorithm also topped the Kiosk, Border at ten or more years and Mugshot at 12 or more years categories. It came second in three categories, and third in the remaining one (Mugshot N=16 million).

The company’s facial recognition business operates in more than 50 different countries and regions, according to an announcement, and is used at roughly 80 airports. NEC’s NeoFace Monitor is also used for 1:1 facial authentication by more than a thousand organizations.

The categories in NIST’s latest FRTE 1:N test for which NEC’s algorithm did not have the score were topped by Cloudwalk (90-degree Profile and Border) and SenseTime (Mugshot N=16 million and Webcam).

The FRTE 1:N compares false negative identification rate (FNIR) with the false positive identification rate (FPIR) set to 0.003 (three in one thousand).

NIST Applied Cybersecurity Division Digital Identity Program Lead Ryan Galluzzo said during a recent event that his team is working on how to integrate testing and evaluation into guidelines for AI and digital identity, Federal News Network reports.

Galluzzo was speaking during the 2024 Policy Forum hosted by the Better Identity Coalition, FIDO Alliance, and the Identity Theft Resource Center. Operational testing and continuous monitoring of how the technology is working are also key, he says.

Standards and testing for biometrics are further ahead than many of the other applications his group deals with, but he emphasizes the importance of “getting the right representative data to make sure you’re representing your population.”

ROC posts best latent fingerprint matching speed in NIST test with new algorithm

A new latent fingerprint matching software development kit has been launched by ROC, with a high score in the NIST Evaluation of Latent Fingerprint Technologies (ELFT) and what the company says is 500 times faster performance than the industry standard.

The U.S.-based company’s first-ever ELFT entry was found to be in the top three among global biometrics providers for accuracy, based on an aggregation of scores across various datasets and accuracy metrics for both distal prints and palm prints, according to an announcement. The average false non-identification rate (FNIR) across all distal evaluation datasets of the “ROC+005” algorithm, which is part of the ROC SDK 3, was 0.1976. The company’s algorithm also completed matches in 15 seconds, more than 150 times faster than the next-fastest provider.

A fingerprint segmentation algorithm from ROC also performed well in a NIST evaluation last year.

ROC (also known as Rank One Computing) provides its facial recognition, liveness detection, iris and fingerprint biometrics all within the SDK. The third-generation API also includes face analytics, license plate recognition and object detection.

In addition to their performance and speed advantages, ROC says its algorithms are lightweight enough for deployment at the network edge, opening up new potential applications in law enforcement, border security and counterterrorism. The company specifies possible use cases such as real-time checks against police databases and missing persons lists during traffic stops.

“Algorithms have gotten very good at matching high-quality fingerprints, but matching latent or partial fingerprints has been a persistent challenge that typically requires 45+ minutes,” says Scott Swann, CEO of ROC. “The fact that our algorithm makes incredibly accurate latent matches in just seconds opens a whole new world of applications. Just think about the importance of speed and accuracy at border crossings as we begin to realize some of these new opportunities.”

ROC Senior Scientist Dr. Joshua Engelsma says the advances in SDK 3 are due to a combination of the latest developments in computer vision and machine learning with established techniques. He expects “substantial improvements to our already top-tier latent fingerprint matcher in the very near future.”

Dr. Brendan Klare, ROC Co-founder and Chief Scientist, says, “we’re excited to push the state of machine-learned CV algorithms to other modalities beyond face recognition. Significant advancements in fingerprint technology have been few and far between. We are now turning that tide thanks to the efforts of our new fingerprint center of excellence in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We look forward to working closely again with fingerprint experts across the globe to bring these impactful capabilities to our customers.”

SenseTime wins deals in Saudi Arabia in return for investment in domestic firms

SenseTime and other technology companies based in China are investing in local firms in Saudi Arabia, often in the form of joint ventures, to qualify for contracts in the country worth hundreds of millions of dollars, the Financial Times reports.

'Strings attached': Saudi Arabia steps up demands in tech deals with China

Alibaba and SenseTime secure huge joint ventures in Gulf kingdom but agreements come with stringent requirements

www.ft.com

The facial recognition developer has also won a contract with Saudi Arabia’s megacity project, Neom.

A joint venture formed in 2022 was formed by SenseTime with $207M in support from the Saudi Company for Artificial Intelligence (SCAI) to develop AI applications in the Middle East. The SCAI is owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund. The terms of the deal stipulate that if the JV is not acquired or does not hold an initial public offering within seven years, SenseTime must buy out the SCAI’s share.

The Times describes a situation in which countries in the Middle East want to establish AI capabilities, and are offering large contracts in return for upgrades in their domestic skill-sets. A venture capitalist told the publication that Chinese firms are more open to transferring intellectual property than their European and U.S. counterparts.

The sought capabilities include Arabic heavy large language models, and SenseTime has just unveiled its SenseNova 4.0 LLM. SenseNova beats GPT-3.5 in overall performance, according to the announcement, and is used to power the new Office Raccoon data analysis application.

Chinese investors say Saudi contributions to venture funds are now typically reserved for projects in which 30 percent of spending is within the kingdom.

SenseTime apparently satisfied those requirements with a joint venture with PIF. Their JV has signed a memorandum of understanding with educational program Mawhiba to provide online training and “an AI-centric enrichment program for Mawhiba students,” according to a LinkedIn post from SenseTime MEA.

London, Montreal subways trial surveillance for public nuisance, suicide prevention

Public safety initiatives are going underground, as subway systems in the UK and Canada experiment with computer vision camera systems, but no facial recognition, for crime and suicide prevention.

London, Montreal subways trial surveillance for public nuisance, suicide prevention | Biometric…

Public transportation systems in the UK and Canada experiment with computer vision camera systems for crime and suicide…

www.biometricupdate.com

Estonia outlines procurement plans for digital ID app

Estonia, one of the world’s pioneers in digital governance and digital IDs, is expecting its national digital identity mobile application to be available in the summer.

The news comes after delays to the app rollout were announced in October due to legislative and technical hurdles. Last week, however, Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna shared a new timeline for the app known as mRiik (mState), Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports.

RIA to declare public procurement for Estonia's state mobile application

Estonia's Information System Authority (RIA) will soon hold a public procurement for additional development work on the…

news.err.ee

“This is a platform that will need further development of various services,” says Tsahkna. “It’s a very big reform, I think one of the biggest reforms made in the last decade in terms of Estonian public services.”

The country’s Information System Authority (RIA) also said that it’s planning to hold a public procurement for additional development of the app. The main task of development will fall on RIA but the agency will also seek help from an additional team, Greta Preast, head of the mobile application department for RIA said during a press conference.

One of the companies floated for the additional development team is Estonian IT services company Nortal which also participated in the conference.

Designed to access government services and based on the Ukranian Diia app, mRiik was originally launched in January 2023. The pilot version of the app, however, screened copies of identity documents which legally cannot prove identity. To legalize identity verification through data stored on mobile devices, the government had to amend the Identity Documents Act.

The app is currently in its second phase of development focusing on adjusting the legal framework for identity verification, according to RIA’s Preast.

“We are also advancing the app’s functionality, design and technical solutions,” she says. “Our goal is for the state app to fit both technically and design-wise into Estonia’s e-government ecosystem, serving as an additional platform for using state e-services.”

Soft biometrics experts wanted on teams tabling proposals for IARPA video re-ID system

The U.S. Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), the government’s intelligence research arm, is in the early stages of developing new re-identification algorithms to track people, vehicles and generic objects across discrete video footage, and is seeking proposals from multidisciplinary teams.

In a video posted to the YouTube channel of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Dr. Reuven Meth, a program manager for IARPA’s Video Linking and Intelligence from Non-Collaborative Sensors (LINCS) project, says the tool will be used to identify patterns and routines and “will work in the open world setting where there is no knowledge in advance of where the people are, where the vehicles are, or which sets of people and vehicles are to be re-identified.”

“Consider a swarm of bees,” says Dr. Meth. “One may be interested in knowing a specific bee such as the queen bee — where is the queen bee throughout the collection? We may also be interested in knowing where the bees travel in general, how far they traveled, which flowers did they visit, et cetera. Knowing the path of where the bee traveled gives insight into its routine habits.”

Part of the method for differentiating individuals in Video LINCS is soft biometrics, which are traits like age or weight that can be used to differentiate individuals from others with certain contexts, but are not useful out of that context or as stable identifiers.

Technical details released at a recent information event specify that Video LINCS autonomously associates objects across diverse, non-collaborative, video sensor footage and maps re-identified objects to a unified coordinate system for geo-localization in a common frame of reference. Per a draft Funding Opportunity Description available here, “the reID and geo-localization algorithms will distill raw pixel data into spatio-temporal motion vectors, providing the ability to analyze these patterns for anomalies and threats. While the ultimate goal will be to re-identify general objects, the program will start with person reID, progress to vehicle reID, and culminate with reID of generic objects across a video collection.”

The system must be self-contained, in that it is able to analyze and re-identify objects within an arbitrary video collection without an external reference dataset such as a gallery or library, and with no prior knowledge of said objects. It has to accommodate diverse video sources and understand when to add new objects to its own library; according to the draft description, “the lack of an a priori gallery of objects to be reidentified will require systems to autonomously determine when to expand system generated galleries to include additional objects vs. expanding matches to existing objects.”

It also needs to be end-to-end, able to ingest video accurately and output reidentified and mapped object location data.

IARPA says the R&D program will last for a 48-month period and unroll in three phases. The draft call for proposals notes the expectation that teams will be collaborative and multidisciplinary. Skills listed in the scope of relevant expertise include AI, computer vision, machine learning, vehicle fingerprinting and soft biometrics.