4chan Won’t Play by UK Age Check Rules, Raising Question About Enforcement Potency
4chan has publicly refused to comply with the UK’s Online Safety Act age‑verification rules, arguing that US law shields it from British regulation. Ofcom responded by levying fines of £450,000 (≈$596,000) for lacking age checks and an additional £70,000 (≈$92,000) for missing risk assessments. The regulator is now expanding enforcement, issuing legally binding notices to over 40 major sites and demanding dozens of risk assessments. The standoff highlights the clash between national safety mandates and the cross‑border nature of internet platforms.
Ryanair Boss Calls EES ‘a S***show’ with Full Biometrics Check Launch Days Away
The EU’s Entry‑Exit System (EES) is set to go fully live on April 10, but biometric border checks are still delayed, prompting Ryanair chief Michael O’Leary to label the rollout a "shambles." Understaffed kiosks and long queues have already caused...
Kenya Clarifies Biometric Re Enrollment Rules for Previously Registered Voters
Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission clarified that only voters registered before 2012 who never had their iris data captured need to re‑enrol their biometrics. The clarification follows earlier messages that suggested a blanket re‑registration, causing public confusion. It arrives...
SecuGen Advanced Fingerprint Biometrics Device Now Available in MOSIP Marketplace
SecuGen’s Unity 20 fingerprint scanner has been added to the MOSIP Marketplace after achieving compliance with MOSIP’s SBI 2.0 L1 specifications. The device incorporates Live Finger Detection for presentation‑attack detection and a FIPS 140‑3 Level 3‑certified Foundational Trust Module that encrypts biometric data at...
Reality Defender Strikes Deal to Provide Deepfake Detection to French Orange
Reality Defender, a U.S. AI‑security firm, has signed a deal to embed its multimodal deep‑fake detection into Orange Business, the enterprise arm of French telecom giant Orange. The integration will protect Orange’s video‑conferencing, contact‑center and voice‑telephony services with real‑time, API‑driven...
Meta’s Facial Recognition Smart Glasses Plan Sees Increasing Opposition
More than 60 civil‑society groups, led by the Consumer Federation of America, have written to Congress demanding a halt to Meta’s plan to embed facial‑recognition software, called “Name Tag,” in its Ray‑Ban smart glasses. The groups cite a Swedish investigation...
Unico Expands Global Digital Identity Footprint with New Silicon Valley HQ
Unico, the Brazilian digital‑identity specialist, opened a new global headquarters in Menlo Park, marking its first U.S. base after a two‑year expansion that included acquisitions in Mexico, the UAE and the United States. The firm’s platform combines face‑biometrics with machine‑learning...
New Report Warns Federal Fraud Controls Are Falling Behind
A new Socure‑sponsored report warns that federal fraud controls are lagging behind rapidly evolving identity‑theft tactics powered by AI and automation. The Government Accountability Office estimates annual federal fraud losses between $233 billion and $521 billion, with pandemic relief programs alone losing...
AusPost Gives up on Its Digital ID Amid Rising Competition
Australia Post is shutting down its Digital iD service, the first privately accredited digital identity platform, by April 30, 2026. Launched in 2017 and accredited in 2019, the app let users verify identity via selfie and access banking, postal and...
Facephi Expands LATAM Behavioral Biometrics Footprint with New Banking Contract
Facephi has signed a five‑year deal with an unnamed Central American bank to deploy its mule‑account detection and behavioral biometrics platform across the institution’s operations. The solution will monitor the full customer lifecycle, targeting synthetic identities, organized fraud networks and...
PALOP Countries Collaborate to Enhance Digital Identity and Public Services
Portuguese‑speaking African (PALOP) nations are joining forces to accelerate digital identity adoption and improve public service delivery. A webinar on March 26, organized by UNU‑EGOV, Cetic.br and NIC.br, launched the Digital Governance Dialogues series, which will run thematic sessions in Lusophone...
Brazil Investing $8M to Accelerate Switch to New Digital ID in Remote Communities
Brazil's Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services has launched the PROCIN program, allocating 44.25 million reais (about US$7.8 million) to accelerate issuance of the new national digital ID (CIN) in remote communities of Bahia, Amapá, Amazonas and Maranhão. The funding...
Niger Unveils New Biometric ID System to Boost Digital Sovereignty
Niger became the second member of the Alliance of Sahel States to launch a regional biometric national ID system, with President General Abdourahamane Tiani enrolling first on March 27. The program, built by Libyan firm Al Itissan Al‑Jadeed, issues cards to citizens...
Rollout Delays Extend Austria’s EES Biometrics Contract with Secunet Again
Austria has extended its Entry‑Exit System (EES) contract with German security firm secunet, raising the deal’s value from €14.6 million (≈US$16.7 million) to €22 million (≈US$25.2 million) and lengthening the term to March 2029. The increase reflects repeated delays, as the European Commission postponed the...
MOSIP, OpenCRVS Develop Age Verification PoC to Help Prevent Child Marriage
A collaboration between MOSIP and OpenCRVS has produced an open‑source proof‑of‑concept that lets marriage officiants verify the ages of prospective spouses using national digital IDs or civil registration data. The system works across formal registry offices and informal religious or...
Sri Lanka Building Data Minimization Into Digital ID to Protect Privacy
Sri Lanka is set to launch its first digital ID, SL‑UDI, later this year, embedding data minimization and purpose limitation at the core of the system. The platform uses role‑based access controls, encryption, immutable audit logs, and secure API integrations...
Rwanda Races to Meet 2027 Deadline for Digital ID Rollout
Rwanda aims to complete its Single Digital ID System (SDID) by 2027, aligning with the National Strategy for Transformation and a $200 million World Bank‑funded Digital Acceleration Project. So far, 1.5 million citizens have been biometrically enrolled, and the mobile registration drive...
Apple’s Age Verification Move Is Bigger than It Looks
Apple has rolled out mandatory age verification for iCloud users in the United Kingdom, shifting the check from individual apps to the account level. The change aligns with the UK’s Online Safety framework, which demands tighter age controls for digital...
Biometrics Adoption, Inclusion Gains Depend on Bridging the Understanding Gap
Researchers from Hong Kong and Germany examined 22 older Chinese adults’ experiences with biometric payments, finding that convenience and perceived security drive adoption while fears of loss of control and data misuse hinder it. The study, slated for the 2026...
Robin Tombs Talks UK Digital ID with Trinsic as Yoti Passes 23M Global Downloads
Yoti, the reusable digital identity wallet founded in 2014, has now exceeded 23 million global downloads, including 7.8 million in the United Kingdom, with 5 million added in the past year. CEO Robin Tombs discussed the platform’s evolution on Trinsic’s Future of Identity...
Marshall Scholar Tells BU Podcast How to Fix the Age Assurance Debate
Marshall Scholar Ben Fischer, a researcher at the University of Edinburgh, declined to sign an open letter urging a global moratorium on privacy‑preserving age‑assurance technology. While he agrees with many concerns in the letter, Fischer remains optimistic that a blend...
NIST Updates Biometric Data Exchange Format Standard
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has issued an updated ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011 data exchange standard, documented in a 621‑page NIST SP 500‑290e4. The revision expands machine‑readability, adds richer metadata, and standardizes record structures for fingerprints, facial images, iris...
Senegal Launches Digital Government Portal to Ease Access to Public Services
Senegal launched the e‑Senegal digital portal on March 24, offering a one‑stop shop for passports, business registration, police clearances and other public services. The platform is a core component of the New Deal Technologique, a five‑year strategy to digitise 90 percent of...
ROC Launches Biometric Physical Access Control Software as Enterprise Market Heats Up
ROC announced Access Face1, a facial‑recognition based physical access control solution that augments existing security systems with real‑time AI intelligence. The software leverages ROC’s Vision AI platform and achieved top scores in NIST’s FRTE verification and identification evaluations. Industry analysts...
UK Deepfake Detection Report Forecasts Continued Growth for Sector
The UK Department for Science, Innovation and Technology released a report outlining rapid expansion in the deep‑fake detection market, noting a 380% increase in providers since 2017 and U.S. firms leading the sector. In the UK, 83% of vendors are...
‘Privacy Sweep’ Finds EU Online Safety Measures Stagnating over Past Decade
The Global Privacy Enforcement Network’s 2025 audit of nearly 900 websites and apps used by children revealed a deterioration in privacy safeguards, with more personal data collected and age‑verification mechanisms easily bypassed. Over half of the services required email addresses...
Thales Supports Dominican Republic’s Biometric Passport System Upgrade
Thales and local partner Midas Dominicana are deploying a new biometric passport system in the Dominican Republic, featuring a polycarbonate data page and an embedded chip that stores holder biometrics. The solution meets International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) standards, aiming...
Facial Age Estimation Adoption Puts Pressure on Ecosystem
The European Association for Biometrics hosted a workshop on facial age estimation (FAE) as its adoption accelerates across legal and commercial contexts. Experts highlighted that deep‑learning models require massive, privacy‑sensitive datasets, and current evaluation methods lag behind deployment speed. While...
EU’s Tech Sovereignty Plan May Include an Independent Biometric Evaluation Platform
The EU Innovation Hub for Internal Security recommends creating an independent biometric evaluation and testing platform to reduce reliance on U.S. standards like NIST. The brief highlights that Europe currently lacks a unified testing capability, putting it at a disadvantage...
AI Agent Identity and Next‑gen Enterprise Authentication Prominent at RSAC 2026
At RSA Conference 2026, vendors highlighted password‑less authentication for both humans and AI agents, with Swissbit unveiling a biometric FIDO2 key that adds post‑quantum resistance, and RSA extending its identity suite to Microsoft 365 E7. IBM, Auth0 and Yubico introduced...
Fime Lab Can Now Test Against New EMVCo Biometric Card Specification
Fime’s EMEA laboratory has earned EMVCo recognition to test fingerprint sensors against the new Biometric Card Specification, enabling certified evaluation of reliability, liveness detection and user convenience. Fingerprint Cards AB became the first provider to have its complete fingerprint‑based payment...
Fargo Facial Recognition Saga Sees Police Admit Errors but Refuse to Close Case on Suspect
Fargo police have publicly acknowledged that a faulty facial‑recognition match led to the wrongful arrest of Tennessee resident Angela Lipps, who spent four months in jail before alibi evidence cleared her. The error stemmed from Clearview AI technology used by West Fargo police,...
Jumio Approved for Biometric KYC in Malaysia with Successful Independent Assessment
Jumio passed Bank Negara Malaysia’s independent eKYC Breakthrough Assessment, meeting all criteria for ID verification, facial recognition and biometric liveness detection. The tests, which included detecting forged MyKad cards and spoofed selfies, returned zero findings of concern. This regulatory endorsement...
One Year in, UK Digital Inclusion Action Plan Has Launched Fund, Drawn Roadmap
The UK government released its first‑year progress report for the Digital Inclusion Action Plan, highlighting the launch of an £11.9 million (≈$15 million) Digital Inclusion Innovation Fund that has backed 85 local projects. A pilot device‑donation scheme has already placed around 200...
Zambia Looking for MOSIP System Integrator to Support Digital ID Project
Zambia’s Smart Zambia Institute (SZI) is seeking an international MOSIP system integrator to deploy, customize and integrate a biometric‑based digital ID platform with its civil registration architecture. Backed by more than $100 million in World Bank funding, the rollout aims for...
Smart Africa Partners to Strengthen Digital Governance, Innovation Across Africa
Smart Africa has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Rwanda’s Certa Foundation to boost digital governance and innovation across the continent. The partnership will deliver technical support to policymakers, regulators and public institutions while creating a pipeline of youth policymakers...
GovTech Panel on DPI Cautions on Dogmatic Digitalization
A GovTech panel highlighted the need for hybrid, citizen‑co‑designed digital public infrastructure, stressing legal, organizational, semantic, and technical interoperability and offline options. Speakers warned against dogmatic digitalization and advocated AI‑compatible, inclusive designs, especially for digitally illiterate groups. Concurrently, UN Women...
Nepal Rolls Out Integrated Digital System, Faces Acceptance Problem with Nagarik App
Nepal’s Ministry of Home Affairs has linked its Centralized Citizenship Management Information System with the National Identity Management Information System, creating a unified digital platform for citizenship certificates and national ID cards. The integration is live at 12 pilot service...
NIST Releases Latent Fingerprint Biometrics Training Data, Quality Assessment Software
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the fully annotated SD 302 latent fingerprint dataset, containing 10,000 images from 200 volunteers, now split into nine specialized subsets. The data, originally gathered for the IARPA Nail‑to‑Nail challenge, was updated...
Liberia’s National ID Issuance Grinds to Halt over $1.7M Debt to Service Provider
Liberia’s national ID issuance has been stalled since June 2025 after the government failed to pay roughly $1.7 million owed to Techno Brain, the Kenyan firm that operates the country’s biometric registration system. The suspension follows a series of technical glitches,...
Taceo Network Enables ‘Private Shared State’ for Hosting Sensitive Parts of Workflow
Austrian startup Taceo has opened public access to its Taceo Network, a private execution layer that lets organizations run sensitive identity, biometric and payment logic on shared digital infrastructure without exposing raw data. The platform uses coSNARKs, a cryptographic tool...
Age Assurance a Baseline Requirement for AI in New White House Framework
The White House’s new National Policy Framework for Artificial Intelligence places child safety at the forefront, requiring every AI service likely to be accessed by minors to implement age‑assurance mechanisms. The policy defines age verification as a foundational, privacy‑preserving control...
New Zealand to Enable Digital ID Credentials, Age Checks via Govt.nz App Wallet
New Zealand will embed a digital identity wallet into the existing Govt.nz app by the end of March 2026, allowing government and private entities to issue credentials directly to users’ phones. The first credential, the Kiwi Access Card, will replace...
Precise and Fingerprint Cards to Form Nordic Biometrics Giant with Merger
Swedish biometrics firms Precise Biometrics and Fingerprint Cards announced a merger, with Precise absorbing FPC in an all‑share transaction. FPC is valued at roughly SEK 135.7 million ($14.5 million), and its shareholders will own 47 % of the combined entity. The companies project...
House Bill Sets up New Clash over Federal Privacy Rules
U.S. Rep. Zoe Lofgren introduced the 151‑page Online Privacy Act, a sweeping federal bill that would establish nationwide data‑privacy rights and create a dedicated Digital Privacy Agency. The legislation grants individuals rights to access, correct, delete, port, and limit the...
Socure’s Deepanker Saxena Breaks Down How to Spot Fake Job Candidates
Socure’s head of product Deepanker Saxena warns that AI‑driven fake job applicants are infiltrating hiring pipelines, giving fraudsters rapid access to corporate systems. He explains that a compromised employee can cause ransomware, data theft, or IP loss within minutes of...
Researchers Systematize Palm Biometrics to Enable Automated Forensics
Researchers from Griaule and Brazil's Civil Police introduced a "standard palm formula" after analyzing 4,000 palm prints, creating a consistent classification for forensic comparison. The model focuses on the distal palm segments (B1‑B5 and VP I‑IV) and translates complex patterns...
Oz Forensics Launches Transparency Tool to Build Biometric Liveness Detection Trust
Oz Forensics has unveiled a Trust Center to increase transparency around its facial biometric and liveness detection solutions. The portal aggregates certifications, ISO 27001:2022 compliance, and independent PAD and IAD test results from iBeta and BixeLab. It also offers controlled access...
Phased Rollout of Sri Lanka’s Digital ID Will Ensure Security, Privacy Standards
Sri Lanka will roll out its Unique Digital Identity (SLUDI) in phases, targeting Q3 2026 nationwide. The government emphasizes measurable security, privacy and performance benchmarks, with independent verification. Deputy Minister Eranga Weeraratne highlighted local capacity building, transparent commitments, public awareness...
ID4Africa Prioritizes Digital Identity Ecosystems to Center Users at Upcoming AGM
ID4Africa’s 2026 Annual General Meeting in Abidjan will center on digital public ecosystems rather than pure technology. The program introduces Country Playbooks, Frontline plenary sessions, and stakeholder relevance maps to help over 200 speakers share practical lessons from African identity...