Biometric Update https://www.biometricupdate.com Biometrics News, Companies and Explainers Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:40:01 +0000 en-US hourly 1 66434804 EUDI Wallet provides baseline target for standards to enable agentic commerce https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/eudi-wallet-provides-baseline-target-for-standards-to-enable-agentic-commerce https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/eudi-wallet-provides-baseline-target-for-standards-to-enable-agentic-commerce#respond Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:06:56 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351198 A new non-paper from the WE BUILD Consortium offers a policy vision for Europe’s chance to build a trusted identity layer for AI agents. “Trusted Identities for AI Agents: An Opportunity for Europe” takes as its starting point the presumed transformation of the world by agentic AI. “By 2030, billions of AI agents will operate across borders,” it says. “The upside is significant, but does not come without risk. The rapid scaling of the use of AI agents requires a corresponding evolution in digital infrastructure.” This is the challenge facing the identity and authentication ecosystem. The current work of organizations like WE BUILD and the FIDO Alliance points toward EUDI Wallets, verifiable credentials and delegated identity becoming the trust layer for agentic AI – and a necessary foundation for trust if agentic commerce is to reach its proclaimed potential.

Passkey progress provides roadmap

In a recent interview with Dock Labs, FIDO Alliance Executive Director and CEO Andrew Shikiar explains how the agentic shift has prompted FIDO to broaden its remit beyond passkeys to address ways to secure authentication for agentic transactions. In doing so, he provides a de facto technical and standards roadmap for how to successfully and smoothly transition trusted identity into the agentic ecosystem. FIDO’s approach to passkeys has yielded one of the tech world’s security success stories. Working and collaborating across the industry, FIDO effectively packaged and produced the raw material of public-key cryptography into what we now recognize as the passkey, through a combination of standards, communications and design guidelines. In doing so, it has helped address the problem of phishing, and taken major steps toward its initial goal of freeing the world from the tyranny of the password. Shikiar says that, for the passkey project, “we poured a lot of time and money and research into optimizing user experience and issuing user experience guidelines. We were acutely aware that everyone’s first passkey experience had to be a good one, so that they’d want to use them again.” FIDO’s “cookbook for how to roll out passkeys” helped relying parties with their learning curve, and directed the industry toward common repeatable user journeys that built confidence, awareness and demand for passkeys. The win is not yet formally confirmed; recent data from FIDO and HID shows that passkey adoption is widespread but not yet mature, and tends to stall at scale, with 93 percent of organizations somewhere on the passkey adoption path, but only 13 percent having deployed passkeys at scale.

Europe serving as model for wallet, VC ecosystem 

With the passkey problem well in hand, the FIDO Alliance’s efforts are now focused on building a similar path for verifiable credentials. Shikiar speaks of giving verifiable credentials “a passkey moment,” by working to complement pre-existing foundational protocols with a certification program, a market program, consumer awareness, branding and other supports. He is clear on FIDO’s role and core deliverable. “What we’re aiming to do here is not create specifications. Our core deliverable will be a certification program.” Major projects worldwide are bringing digital credentials into popular use, from mDL schemes to the EUDI Wallet program in the EU. The latter is a major catalyst for verifiable credentials in the identity marketplace, and FIDO believes it can play its part in achieving interoperability and technical alignment. Shikiar says it will be looking to “ensure that a wallet correctly implements credential formats and presentation protocols from ISO, from OIDF from IETF and other groups,  so that an issuer or relying party can can trust that a credential can be stored, managed and consumed in the way it’s supposed to be irrespective of where the wallet resides.” In effect, then, FIDO – like WE BUILD – is looking to Europe as a baseline for standards governing VCs, as digital identity and the agentic economy continue to develop globally. Major shifts driven by broad regulation are less likely to occur in the U.S., where opposition to such things is built into the structure of government – and Shikiar notes that, between the U.S. and EU models, an array of approaches may emerge; he points to India, Japan, Singapore and Australia as countries building strong digital identity ecosystems. Regardless, “the need for interoperability is undebatable.” The trick now is in how to make the messaging resonate at the frequency of passkeys.

Trust layer will enable agentic authentication

The agentic frontier is still taking shape; Shikiar forecasts between 12 and 18 months as a timeline for agents to noticeably emerge into the consumer purchasing pipeline. Thus does agentic authentication become the next major identity obstacle: a key piece of a puzzle that includes complex questions about liability and authority on which the whole agentic commerce infrastructure depends. Shikiar says “we’ve seen the analyst reports projecting, you know, billions or trillions of dollars in value in agentic commerce. None of that will happen unless we can implement a trust layer to allow agentic commerce to happen.” With its wide-reaching membership and engagement with senior leadership, the FIDO Alliance is uniquely positioned to help the industry get where it intends to go. Major players like Google and Mastercard have contributed to FIDO’s agentic authentication working group and agentic payments technical working group, reflecting a shared commitment to giving the industry a strong foundation.

Standards transcend competition

“Ultimately, when I think about standards in general, I see them as kind of an act of collective commoditization, right?” Shikiar says. “Basically saying, there’s a layer of technology that doesn’t really have a competitive advantage to us alone and it’s better for us to all agree that this is kind of the value line that we’re all going to implement on top of.” As with most matters of identity, Shikiar says, it all comes down to trust. Can FIDO and its peers help construct an agentic ecosystem that consumers understand, trust and want to use? The answer is a moving target – for now. The identity market is shifting, molded by regulations, AI threats and opportunities, and the rapid advance of technology. Shikiar says that isn’t likely to slow down on its own account. “Everything is happening at agentic pace, agentic scale, which means fast and crazy and breaking things. But at the same time, we need to slow down and agree upon some primitives that will allow agentic commerce to actually move at agentic scale.”]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/eudi-wallet-provides-baseline-target-for-standards-to-enable-agentic-commerce/feed 0 351198 US Senate panel advances online child safety bill https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/us-senate-panel-advances-online-child-safety-bill https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/us-senate-panel-advances-online-child-safety-bill#respond Wed, 05 Aug 2026 21:05:55 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351219 The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation unanimously advanced the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) on Wednesday, moving the online child safety bill one step closer to a Senate vote while leaving unresolved differences with the House of Representatives. KOSA would require covered online platforms to exercise reasonable care to prevent and mitigate specified harm to minors. It would also require platforms to provide children and parents with additional safeguards and controls over features that can encourage compulsive use, personalized recommendations, and unwanted interactions. “We’re sending a message to Big Tech that the era of Big Tech profiting off of our children is over,” said bill sponsor, Republican Marsha Blackburn, during the committee’s markup of the legislation. “Congress needs to do more. [This bill] imposes a duty of care on social media platforms so that these companies have to take reasonable care to make sure they are not creating harm and implementing products that harm kids,” said Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell. “We’ve now passed KOSA again unanimously out of this committee. I’m confident we’ll pass it on the Senate floor, and then we’ll continue the hard work and negotiations with the House to get it over the finish line into the president’s desk,” said committee chair Ted Cruz. The committee considered KOSA as part of a broader executive session devoted to children’s online safety and AI. Separate measures addressed the use of children’s information by AI services and potential risks associated with AI-enabled toys. Those proposals are independent bills and are not provisions of KOSA. The vote marked another Senate effort to enact KOSA after an earlier version passed the chamber overwhelmingly in 2024 but failed to clear the House. The latest action could send the measure back to the full Senate, although no floor vote has been guaranteed. Its path remains uncertain because House lawmakers have pursued the KIDS Act, a separate package with a different regulatory structure. The bill was passed by the House last month as a disjointed package of legislation that would regulate web browsing and private messaging. The House legislation includes elements drawn from KOSA but does not duplicate the Senate measure, leaving the chambers divided over the scope of platform duties and federal protections for minors. “Instead of passing a federal standard that will protect America’s children from Big Tech’s greed, the House of Representatives just passed legislation that is a pale imitation of Big Tech accountability,” Blackburn and Democrat Sen. Richard Blumenthal said at the time. “The House’s decision to strip out the duty of care will only maintain the status quo in which Big Tech uses our kids as profit centers and leaves parents to pick up the pieces,” the two lawmakers added. “We will not back down from the fight to pass the stronger, more widely supported version of the Kids Online Safety Act, and we will not greenlight hollow reforms that allow Big Tech’s predatory business model to remain intact.” Cantwell said Wednesday that the just passed Kids Online Safety Act “imposes a duty of care on social media platforms so that these companies have to take reasonable care to make sure they are not creating harm and implementing products that harm kids.” Supporters argue KOSA would establish overdue protections against design practices and recommendation systems that can expose young users to harmful material. Civil liberties organizations have warned that broadly written safety duties could encourage platforms to restrict lawful content or adopt more intrusive methods of determining users’ ages.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/us-senate-panel-advances-online-child-safety-bill/feed 0 351219 Incode launches GovFaceMatch for DMV-based identity verification https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/incode-launches-govfacematch-for-dmv-based-identity-verification https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/incode-launches-govfacematch-for-dmv-based-identity-verification#respond Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:51:40 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351173 Incode has announced the launch of GovFaceMatch, which a blog post calls “the first identity solution to verify biometrics directly against state DMV records in real time.” The company says that, in the face of complex, sophisticated AI attacks that hobble traditional identity verification systems, “the only viable solution is to tie identity directly to an irrefutable source of truth.” Government records serve this purpose, and Incode is betting on their reliability, in that GovFaceMatch is the first product to launch in GovMatch, a suite of verification solutions built on government records. “By matching a live selfie against the issuing government record,” it says, “GovFaceMatch confirms identity against the one source that cannot be fabricated, in an average of 10 seconds.”

No need to trust document, no additional friction

The firm is positioning its offering as an alternative to additional checks that add friction and can ultimately impact revenue. “Additional identity checks frustrate users, and that frustration translates to drop-offs and lost conversion,” it says. “Up to 40 percent of legitimate users abandon document-based verification before they complete their session.” GovFaceMatch prioritizes a simple user experience, aiming to offer most customers a basic two-step process: scan a driver’s license barcode and take a selfie for matching. In doing so, it tweaks the central question from “does this document look legitimate?” to “does the person undergoing verification match a real government-issued identity?” This, Incode says, eliminates the need to trust the document at all. The product can verify identity in an average of 10 seconds, and has led to a 20 percent increase in overall conversion for select use cases. It requires explicit consent for all user verifications, and facial biometrics “can be deleted immediately following verification.” It operates through secure integrations with state DMV systems, with all biometric matching occurring within the DMV environment, behind its security perimeter. This form of direct verification against official issuing records, Incode says, provides “a level of certainty that legacy systems cannot replicate.”

Government records immune to agentic AI

In a post on LinkedIn, Incode CEO Ricardo Amper calls GovFaceMatch “a new standard for identity verification.” He says the threat of AI fraud has grown too sophisticated for the tradeoff between fraud and friction to survive. “A fake identity built on real stolen data and the fraudster’s own face sells for as little as $15, and a fully functioning synthetic identity can be built in under seven minutes,” Amper says. “The data is real. The face passes the check. Traditional verification was never designed to stop this.” Amper points to Incode’s recent Agentic Fraud Report, which “documented autonomous AI agents executing attacks with no human operator, generating documents, identities, and deepfakes at machine speed.” “Every check that judges whether an artifact looks authentic loses ground as agentic AI improves. A government record does not.”]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/incode-launches-govfacematch-for-dmv-based-identity-verification/feed 0 351173 Dispel launches biometric identity proofing for OT remote access https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/dispel-launches-biometric-identity-proofing-for-ot-remote-access https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/dispel-launches-biometric-identity-proofing-for-ot-remote-access#respond Wed, 05 Aug 2026 20:50:33 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351189 Dispel has added government ID verification, facial matching and liveness detection to its operational technology (OT) remote access platform, allowing organizations to verify the real-world identity of users before granting access to industrial systems. Dispel Identity validates a government-issued identity document and compares a live facial image with the portrait on the document. The company says the process is delivered through an accredited provider to NIST Identity Assurance Level (IAL) 2. “Credentials can be phished or handed off, allowing attackers to use the front door to gain access to your organization's most important assets,” says Ethan Schmertzler, co-CEO of Dispel. NIST defines IAL2 as an identity proofing process that collects and validates identity and verifies that the applicant is associated with the claimed identity. Dispel describes its identity proofing process in three stages. Resolution confirms that the applicant represents a real person, validation checks if the government-issued identity document is genuine, and verification uses liveness detection and facial comparison to confirm that the applicant matches the portrait on the document. Once verified, the person is assigned an identity record that can be linked to enterprise identity provider accounts, local credentials, and shared vendor accounts. The capability is available within the Dispel Zero Trust Engine. “Dispel Identity is the standard that OT remote access has always needed, giving you the confidence and control to know exactly who is in your system,” Schmertzler adds. This is important in OT environments, where industrial operators may provide remote access to equipment manufacturers, system integrators, maintenance providers, and other third parties. CISA notes that industrial remote access architectures can include vendor sites, partners, and external providers, and the remote access can expose the control systems to cyber threats. A compromised credential can provide a route to systems controlling production equipment, utilities, or safety-related processes. Actions performed through those systems can have severe consequences for plant operations. Dispel Identity allows operators to decide when stronger identity assurance is required. Using the Policy Builder, an organization can trigger verification according to the type of user requesting access, the sensitivity of the asset, and the location of the connection. Dispel says the identity verification service supports government-issued documents from 195 countries and uses face matching technology benchmarked through NIST evaluations. The platform supports one-to-one (1:1) and one-to-many (1:N) facial identification. The company claims that the biometric data is encoded as a “non-reversible and non-reconstructable format.” The customers can select processing in the United States or the European Union.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/dispel-launches-biometric-identity-proofing-for-ot-remote-access/feed 0 351189 Fraunhofer develops real-time deepfake detector for video calls https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/fraunhofer-develops-real-time-deepfake-detector-for-video-calls https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/fraunhofer-develops-real-time-deepfake-detector-for-video-calls#respond Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:21:50 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351155 As AI‑generated fraud rises, and video‑based scams seek out high-value targets, the fightback is afoot. The Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology (SIT) in Darmstadt, Germany, has come up with a prototype. Deepfaked live-video scams are increasing. Singapore alone recorded more than 1,200 cases in January 2026, up from just 43 a year earlier. One high‑profile incident in 2025 saw a Singaporean CFO tricked into transferring US$500,000 during a deepfake Zoom call in which every participant, including his boss, was fabricated. Fraunhofer’s prototype combines audio and video analysis to flag suspicious activity during live meetings. The system runs locally on a high‑performance laptop, avoiding the need to send sensitive footage to external servers. When the software detects multiple warning signs, a probability score indicates the call may be manipulated. This can prompt users to verify identities through additional questions or a separate communication channel. Researchers say videoconferencing poses multiple challenges. Compressed data streams, fluctuating quality, blur filters and background noise can obscure the visual artifacts traditional detection methods rely on. The team trained its AI model using thousands of real and spoofed recordings, simulating typical videoconference conditions to improve accuracy. The technology is still in the proof‑of‑concept stage. Fraunhofer plans to work with companies and videoconferencing providers to integrate the system into platforms such as Teams or Zoom, or into secure corporate server environments. Legal questions, such as whether participants must consent to analysis, remain under review. Deepfakes could compromise bank video identification, and other critical security processes, researchers warn. The advice is for technical detection to be paired with clear procedures. If a financial transfer is requested during a call, a second independent channel should always be used for confirmation. SIT’s project, under the Media Security and IT Forensics department, was created as part of “ATHENE,” a research center for cybersecurity funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the state of Hesse. Real-time deepfake detection for videoconferencing is among the emerging technologies examined in Biometric Update's 2026 Deepfake Fraud Detection Market Report, which analyzes the technologies, standards, vendors and market outlook shaping AI-enabled identity defense.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/fraunhofer-develops-real-time-deepfake-detector-for-video-calls/feed 0 351155 Faydaverse officially enters Africa’s DPI market https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/faydaverse-officially-enters-africas-dpi-market https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/faydaverse-officially-enters-africas-dpi-market#respond Wed, 05 Aug 2026 19:11:12 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351143 Faydaverse was officially inaugurated as a state-owned enterprise (SOE) under the umbrella of government strategic investment arm Ethiopian Investment Holdings (EIH) on Tuesday. In its new guise, the organization’s mandate is to develop, operate and scale trusted digital public infrastructure (DPI) solutions to support people, businesses and institutions. Ethiopia’s national digital ID system is nearing 50 million registrations, and its transition recognizes the evolution of that system’s operator into an institution designed to deliver innovation at scale for sustainable impact, according to the government announcement. The transition of the National ID Program (NIDP) to a public enterprise became clear earlier this year when it joined the EIH portfolio. The new status gives Faydaverse a stronger institutional structure enabling it to expand its capabilities, deepen partnerships, attract investment and continue developing digital solutions to support the country’s priorities, the government says. Fayda’s role within national digital transformation strategy Digital Ethiopia 2030 includes delivering public services online to help extend their reach to remote communities and also drive down costs. Yodahe Zemichael, executive director of the NIDP since its inception in 2021, has been appointed Faydaverse CEO. “From its early days as an ID pilot project, Fayda made bold decisions that made it an international benchmark for DPI such as its inclusive approach for digital ID and prioritizing authentication when registration numbers were still at their infancy,” Zemichael says. “Today, when officially marking FaydaVerse as a DPI enterprise under EIH, you can see that those ambitious, bold yet impactful early beginnings are still with us.” Zemichael told the audience of a recent Biometric Update webinar on the MOSIP ecosystem that Fayda is up to 2 million authentication requests a day and growing, and discussed how this volume drives the program’s financial sustainability. One-hundred and fifty enterprises have integrated Fayda to carry out biometric KYC checks, and it has been used for over 190 million authentications so far. A World Bank report published earlier this year called on the country to accelerate the development of the Faydaverse business layer as it continues integrating government services with the national ID. The report also recommended Ethiopia go further with its DPI roadmap.

Exporting DPI expertise

And the ambitions of Faydaverse do not end at Ethiopia’s borders. The new name was publicly revealed when the country signed an MoU with Mozambique to help that country set up its DPI. EIH’s announcement specifically points to Faydaverse’s position as a candidate for such international partnerships, and a potential role in advancing continental priorities like Smart Africa and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). “Digital public infrastructure is becoming a fundamental driver of economic growth, financial inclusion, and efficient service delivery,” says EIH CEO Dr. Brook Taye. “The establishment of Faydaverse as a State-Owned Enterprise and its inclusion in the Ethiopian Investment Holdings portfolio represent an important step in strengthening one of Ethiopia’s most strategic digital assets. Through EIH’s governance framework, investment expertise, and portfolio support, Faydaverse will be positioned to scale sustainably, attract partnerships, and create long-term value for Ethiopia.” During the Biometric Update webinar, Zemichael also emphasized NIDP’s efforts to nurture expertise, including engineers, while building up its experience deploying large-scale digital identity infrastructure. Some of that expertise and experience is now available to other countries.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/faydaverse-officially-enters-africas-dpi-market/feed 0 351143 EU AI Act enforcement reshapes Europe’s technology strategy https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/eu-ai-act-enforcement-reshapes-europes-technology-strategy https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/eu-ai-act-enforcement-reshapes-europes-technology-strategy#respond Wed, 05 Aug 2026 15:46:44 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351128 Most new technologies have a “wild west” period, in which the push for innovation puts products into the market before regulators are even aware of any potential risks. Social media turned its wild west period into unfettered global dominance that is only now being challenged by lawmakers concerned about kids’ mental health. The AI boom, however, will not be allowed to go that far. With popular large language model (LLM) Claude having recently gone rogue, hacking three companies during security testing, lawmakers are taking notice and trying to stay abreast of technological risk with applicable legislation. In the EU, that’s the AI Act – enforceable as of August 2 – and the new Artificial Intelligence Regulation, which brings with it transparency rules requiring certain AI systems to tell users when they’re interacting with AI, and to label AI-generated or modified content as such, including deepfakes. It also adds team members to the European AI Office. According to the European Commission’s website, the AI Office consists of technology specialists, administrative assistants, lawyers, policy specialists, and economists, covering units that range from “Regulation and Compliance” to “AI for Societal Good.” Reporting from AP says that now includes 38 new employees to monitor AI companies that face new reporting and documentation requirements. They’ll be searching for violations such as the publishing of sexually explicit material, fake photos and videos, and cyber threats to public infrastructure. Also on the radar are “systemic risks” including “chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear incidents, loss of control, cyber offense, harmful manipulation and threats to fundamental rights” – effectively a Skynet scenario. As well, there is a new Whistleblower Tool for workers and a Compliance Tool for users to file confidential reports of misconduct. Overall, the regulation fits into the wider global response to rampant AI fraud, with deepfake fraud attempts set to exceed 334 million annually by 2028. Combined with the myriad risks AI firms have themselves identified in their technology – exemplified by Claude going off-script – the problems AI brings with it are beginning to accumulate as fast as the claimed benefits, and leaders are hedging on their message of AI as a driver of human flourishing. Henna Virkkunen, the EU chief for tech sovereignty, says that “as enforcement begins, we are taking an important step towards AI that people and businesses can understand and trust, and whose benefits are shared widely across our society.”

Europe begins cautious uncoupling from Big Tech

The legislation lands as Europe enters a new phase of self-reliance and shifting priorities, as old global alliances wobble under the weight of economic hostility. By and large, global tech is still dominated by U.S. companies: Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft, OpenAI. New laws and regulations have exposed the fault lines where U.S. tech ascendancy meets global regulatory consensus that does not align with Silicon Valley’s interests. As more laws emerge, tension mounts – and the international market begins looking for options that do not rely, fundamentally, on U.S. tech tycoons. Per the Associated Press, “the EU is seeking more independence from both Washington and Beijing by reinvigorating specific domestic industries like manufacturing and defense and forging new trade deals from Brazil to Australia to meet the global rise in economic nationalism.” Recent weeks have seen the European Commission dole out hefty fines like balloons at a birthday party: a billion dollar fine for Google, a $629 million fine for AliExpress, a smaller $230 million fine for Temu. The enforcement crackdown is not likely to win the EU friendship points with those nations on the receiving end. But part of the point is to draw clear lines on digital sovereignty. The EU’s tech strategy has prompted a surge of investment in AI within the bloc, as it aims to catch up with the U.S. and China – and, in doing so, ease its reliance on two potentially volatile superpowers.

European identity firms enjoy home court advantage

For the European biometrics market, that presents an opportunity for providers to leverage political headwinds in order to cement roles in the EU’s digital ecosystem. Homegrown AI product is the order of the day, and regionally based firms like Regula, Innovatrics, Gataca, Signicat, Unissey and Thales stand poised to step into larger roles in the local market. Generative AI is currently fueling a fraud surge that has spurred the deepfake detection market into a high-growth phase. According to the recent report, “The Deepfake Fraud Detection Market 2026: Securing Identity in the AI Era” published by Biometric Update and Goode Intelligence, in the three-year period from 2026 to 2028, voice deepfake checks are forecasted to increase from over 2.88 billion to over 5.45 billion, and face deepfake checks are expected to increase from over 3.16 billion to over 6.78 billion in 2028. Per the report, “this results in a healthy revenue prediction for both voice and face deepfake detection, with an increase from over $1.44 billion in 2026 to over $2.7 billion in 2028 for voice and an increase from over $1.58 billion in 2026 to over $3.39 billion in 2028. Combined (voice and face) revenue will increase from over $3.02 billion in 2026 to over $6.12 billion in 2028.”]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/eu-ai-act-enforcement-reshapes-europes-technology-strategy/feed 0 351128 Born bad – can biometrics decode criminality? https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/born-bad-can-biometrics-decode-criminality https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/born-bad-can-biometrics-decode-criminality#comments Wed, 05 Aug 2026 15:04:00 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351099 By Professor Fraser Sampson, former UK Biometrics & Surveillance Camera Commissioner As we look to facial recognition and other biometrics to solve social problems, an age-old challenge keeps resurfacing. The idea of the ‘born criminal’ has fascinated us for centuries. Since physiognomist Della Porta began using lenses to compare faces in the late 16th century, the idea of biological determinism has dogged forensic debate. When phrenologists offered a scientific basis for identifying criminality by skull examinations three hundred years or so later, people began studying offenders – usually retrospectively – for early warning signs in their physical makeup. As advanced biometrics like facial recognition and gait analysis are used to tackle crime, the question remains relevant today. Biometric technology is great at identifying who dunnit, but can it tell us why they dunnit? Anatomist Franz Joseph Gall espoused a theory that our behaviour can be predicted by the topography of heads and faces, an idea built upon by Cesare Lombroso who believed he could divine criminality through reading the lumps and bumps of people convicted of crimes. Lumping criminals together is highly dubious but the idea of being born bad continues to find support. In 2009 a US court admitted brain scans from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) into evidence in a murder trial and its creator, Kent Kiehl, still maintains that it offers a ‘promising method’ for detecting who is prone to criminality. Can he be right? In 2019, the National Library of Medicine published a paper on ‘Biological Explanations of Criminal Behaviour’ while the Institute of Law advocates how we need to study our biological substrates to get a “fuller understanding” of criminality. It sounds impressive, however diagnosing criminality from physiology has some basic hurdles and they’re as much about the crime as the criminal. Looking for physical hallmarks of latent criminality is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of criminal law. Offending is complex, often situational and heavily influenced by emotional, psychological and environmental elements. There are many different crime ‘types’ - crimes against people, property or the state, arising from a combination of interconnected factors and behaviours of others that were incapable of prediction. Societies produce an infinite variety of perpetrators, some committing crime for the first and only time in their lives. Few offenders confine themselves to a ‘sector’ and recidivism covers a range of offences. Are we really to believe that the faces of those who steal from shops are measurably different from those who sell drugs, traffic humans or hack computers? What about those who do all the above? While there may be a genetic link to things like aggression which might then lead to assaults or even fatalities, a propensity to violence is not the same as having a ‘criminal brain’. Whether viewed from the outside or the inside, the skull can’t show the existence or absence of a ‘guilty mind ‘(mens rea) which is an essential element in most crimes. Some crimes need proof of intent, others require dishonesty or recklessness. Some even attract ‘absolute liability’ where there’s not much you could have done to avoid its commission whatever your dimples might have to say about it. Genetics are proving very valuable in fields like health screening to identify risks of the person developing cancers and hereditary conditions, but these establish aetiological links between physiology and pathology, not behaviour and public policy. Laws set by governments are sociological, reflections of the mores, values and attitudes of the moment – and can change (sometimes very quickly). Things that were once crimes are decriminalised - particularly in sexual activity. Recently, the UK’s legal test for dishonesty that had stood for 35 years, changed in an afternoon, while behaviour that is a crime in some countries isn’t in others. Coupling genetics with jurisdiction is trying to link the unlinkable. A further problem for forehead feeling and skull scanning is that research studies of ‘criminals’ are usually based on their subjects’ convictions. People displaying criminal behaviour are acquitted for non-behavioural reasons like procedural unfairness or administrative error, while others are wrongly convicted, swap charges under a plea deal or admit guilt to protect someone else. How might an MRI scan take account of fallibilities in our criminal justice systems? Biometrics enable reliable comparison of features to confirm individual ID but using prognathous jaws and sessile ears to isolate criminal tendencies still looks like junk science. And when lawyers start pleading biological differences, we all need to be careful. If you claim to be biologically predetermined to commit crime, your behaviour may not be fixable; in some cases, the ‘illusion of scientific certainty’ might lead to a death sentence. It would be easy to dismiss all this as biometric astrology, but it has a sinister side. Convince yourself that inherited physical features are reliable indicators of criminality and it’s a short hop to eugenics. Mapping humans is leading us towards zoemetrics – the ability to measure every manifestation of life. If the state could cut crime by screening out congenital criminals, it might claim a moral duty to do so. What use might governments make of zoemetrics to that end? The born bad theory is an extension of the nature vs nurture debate and AI will be deployed in the continuing hunt for this biometric Snark. Biometrics attribute identity to criminals rather than identifying attributes of criminality. We might find correlations with high levels of deviant thought or low levels of internal inhibitors (both are relevant to re-offending), but we’d still be a world away from predicting conviction by physiology - and I hope we stay here. Otherwise, as Abbie Hoffman says in The Trial of the Chicago 7, people won’t be going to jail ‘because of what they did’, they’ll be going to jail ‘because of who they are’. Emma Goldman anarchically described crime as nothing but misdirected energy. We have plenty of that in our lives and I’m not sure how much of it can be measured by our biometrics.

About the author

Professor Fraser Sampson is the former UK Biometrics and Surveillance Camera Commissioner, Professor of Governance and National Security at CENTRIC, non-executive director at Facewatch, strategic advisor to the Alan Turing Institute's Centre for Emerging Technology and Security (CETaS), and a longtime Biometric Update columnist. He is also the author of the Springer Nature book How AI-Driven Surveillance is Changing our World: Do Robots Have the Right to Remain Silent?, which explores the legal, ethical and societal implications of AI-driven surveillance.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/born-bad-can-biometrics-decode-criminality/feed 1 351099 Immigration enforcement drives surge in FBI DNA database https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/immigration-enforcement-drives-surge-in-fbi-dna-database https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/immigration-enforcement-drives-surge-in-fbi-dna-database#respond Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:39:33 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351078 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may have added nearly 920,000 DNA profiles to the FBI's national criminal database in 2025, according to a Georgetown Law analysis that suggests immigration enforcement has become a major source of new entries in the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). ICE does not disclose submission totals, and the FBI does not identify which agency contributed each profile. Georgetown estimated ICE's total by subtracting roughly 75,000 known CBP submissions from the nearly 995,000 profiles added to CODIS's detainee index during 2025. Internal ICE records show the agency collected just 3,609 DNA samples in fiscal 2020 and 16,392 through mid-May 2021. Georgetown's estimate suggests that figure rose to more than 2,500 collections a day in 2025. Many of those people were detained under civil immigration authority and had not been convicted of a crime. Once entered into CODIS, their profiles can be searched by law enforcement agencies nationwide against biological evidence from unresolved crimes, including evidence collected years after the person’s detention. The FBI also retains the underlying biological sample, which contains far more genetic information than the identifying profile entered into CODIS. The expansion is the latest stage of a program Biometric Update has followed since the first Trump administration. In October 2019, the Department of Justice proposed eliminating a regulatory provision that had allowed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to exempt many immigration detainees from mandatory DNA collection because of operational and resource constraints. CBP began testing the process in January 2020, collecting cheek swabs from people in custody who were subject to fingerprinting. The DHS privacy assessment governing the program said CBP and ICE would send the samples to the FBI Laboratory, which would derive profiles and place them in the National DNA Index System, the national level of CODIS. The Justice Department finalized the rule in March 2020, effective April 8 of that year. It removed the DHS secretary’s authority to grant a broad exemption and restored the attorney general’s power to direct DNA collection from non-U.S. persons detained under federal authority. The department characterized DNA collection as a routine identification procedure comparable to fingerprinting and photographing, while also emphasizing that profiles would be searched against evidence from crimes. The program grew rapidly but unevenly. The Government Accountability Office found that CBP collected nearly one million samples from fiscal 2020 through 2022. In fiscal 2022, however, the agency obtained DNA from only about 634,000 of the nearly 1.7 million people it encountered under immigration enforcement authority. Some individuals were exempt, but CBP lacked adequate records to determine whether other omissions were appropriate. Collection-kit shortages also prevented agents from swabbing some people who were subject to the requirement. GAO recommended better tracking of why samples were not taken, recommendations CBP subsequently implemented. President Donald Trump accelerated the program after returning to office. His January 20, 2025, Securing Our Borders executive order directed the attorney general and homeland security secretary to take “all appropriate action” to fulfill the DNA Fingerprint Act’s requirements for all aliens detained under federal authority. It separately directed DHS to use available technology to verify claimed family relationships. Those are legally and operationally distinct uses of DNA. Familial testing compares samples from an adult and child to determine whether they are biologically related. The CODIS collection program instead creates a law enforcement identification profile that can be searched against crime scene evidence. DHS has said only that childrens’ DNA profiles placed in CODIS were done through its family-verification program but has not explained why children’s profiles had been sent to the FBI’s criminal database. The distinction has become increasingly important as evidence emerges that immigration authorities collected samples from children below the agency’s stated minimum age. As Biometric Update reported in June 2025, CBP records showed that more than 133,000 children and teenagers had already had their DNA submitted to CODIS, including children as young as four. DHS documents had previously described routine collection as applying to people between 14 and 79. The newly released data show that the problem continued. Georgetown identified 492 children under 14 whose profiles CBP sent to the FBI between January 2025 and January 2026. They included 33 seven-year-olds, 32 six-year-olds, 21 five-year-olds, and a four-year-old Mexican child processed in El Paso in January. ICE has also been collecting DNA from families detained at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas. Members of Congress who visited the facility in May said officials gave conflicting explanations about why the samples were taken, where they were sent, and how long they would remain there. DHS later told Democratic Representatives Joaquin Castro, Greg Stanton, and Nanette Barragán that ICE could collect DNA from children beginning at age 14 and confirmed that samples collected through the CODIS program were sent to the FBI. Attorneys monitoring conditions under the Flores settlement, which governs federal treatment of migrant children, said families frequently did not understand which DNA program was being used or why they were being tested. The government has begun prosecuting people who resist. Internal ICE correspondence obtained by Georgetown complicates the government’s longstanding description of DNA collection as an identification measure. In March 2025, an ICE attorney wrote that the authority’s “primary purpose” was the construction of a national DNA database for solving crimes rather than family verification. That description goes directly to the constitutional dispute surrounding the program. The Supreme Court upheld warrantless collection from people arrested for serious crimes in Maryland v. King, relying heavily on the government’s argument that DNA served a booking and identification function. Immigration detention often involves no criminal accusation, yet the resulting profile is retained for future criminal searches. The expansion is already being challenged beyond immigration custody. Four U.S. citizens sued after federal agents allegedly took their DNA when they were detained during protests outside an ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois. Army veteran George Retes Jr. has separately challenged the collection of his DNA after agents detained him during an immigration raid at a California cannabis farm where he worked as a security guard. The volume is also straining the FBI’s processing infrastructure. Its fiscal 2027 budget request seeks 45 positions and $23.4 million to expand federal DNA databasing and laboratory operations. The FBI said submissions rose above 50,000 a month following the 2020 DHS expansion, reached more than 180,000 during February 2024, and produced a processing backlog of 1.8 million samples by the end of fiscal 2024. By December 2025, the CODIS detainee index contained more than 3.34 million profiles, up from just over 23,000 in 2016. It now accounts for more than 17 percent of the broader offender index against which police search crime scene evidence, according to Georgetown. If DHS and criminal justice agencies continue collecting at their 2025 rates, Georgetown projects that profiles supplied through DHS detention authority could constitute more than one-third of the searchable offender index by 2030. What began as an immigration enforcement requirement would, by then, have become one of the principal foundations of the country’s criminal DNA infrastructure.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/immigration-enforcement-drives-surge-in-fbi-dna-database/feed 0 351078 Nigeria integrates national student IDs, digital identity system https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/nigeria-integrates-national-student-ids-digital-identity-system https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/nigeria-integrates-national-student-ids-digital-identity-system#respond Wed, 05 Aug 2026 13:31:30 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=351208 Millions of Nigerian student records are being integrated with the country’s national digital ID, in a move that the federal government hopes will both improve planning and boost registration figures. Nigeria’s Ministry of Education and the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) collaborated to integrate the Learner’s Identification Number (LIN) of 80 million students with the National Identification Number (NIN) registry via the digital Nigeria Education Management Information System (NEMIS). The LIN is a unique 16-digit number assigned to each student in Nigeria’s education system that began rolling out in April with 1.9 million IDs issued. It is associated with demographic and educational data. The integration provides verified education data to the government to support planning and resource allocation, according to an announcement on X. Nigeria is in the midst of a series of reforms to its digital identity system for stronger governance, improved public service delivery and more trusted credentials under and in alignment with the NIMC Act, 2026. The reforms include the ID authority taking responsibility of the country’s PKI system, and a planned integration with the National Health Insurance program. NIMC Director General Engr. Bisoye Coker-Odusote says more than 120 million Nigerians were enrolled in the National Identity Database as of the July 10 statement. The DG updated the figure the same week to 136 million registrations, and NIMC is running a registration campaign with the goal of signing up 180 million people by the end of 2026. Since the LIN system registers students through the education system, the integration provides a path for Nigeria’s schools to dramatically boost NIN registrations.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202608/nigeria-integrates-national-student-ids-digital-identity-system/feed 0 351208