Biometric Update https://www.biometricupdate.com Biometrics News, Companies and Explainers Tue, 27 Oct 2026 22:28:35 +0000 en-US hourly 1 66434804 Practical implementation is cross-border digital ID’s weak spot https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/practical-implementation-is-cross-border-digital-ids-weak-spot https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/practical-implementation-is-cross-border-digital-ids-weak-spot#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 22:09:56 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=361071 A workshop hosted by the Cambridge DPI Regulatory Programme and the Alan Turing Institute examined the practical barriers preventing national digital identity systems from working together across borders. The DPI Regulatory Programme will publish reports on regulatory architecture and Singapore's Singpass next month, followed by two reports on e-KYC, says Pavle Avramović, Cambridge Centre director of research and policy at Financial Innovation for Impact (Fii). The reports draw on an ongoing series of workshops held in different countries. The Programme’s researchers have found that a growing number of regulators are involved with digital ID, including data protection and competition authorities, though central banks still tend to have the strongest voice. To help understand the differences from country to country, the Fii and Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance have developed the Regulatory Diagnostic Framework (RDF), an analytical tool to help with governance reviews. Avramović identifies infrastructure constraints, fragmented data formats across government agencies and insufficient political commitment to building trust and adoption as common interoperability challenges. Meanwhile countries are cautiously exploring how AI can help them deliver services, which adds another wrinkle for regulators.

Governance means regulation in practice

Different digital ID architectures come with different risks and responsibilities. What they have in common is that tailored governance is important, along with guardrails for private sector participation and cross-regulatory coordination. Avramović presented country-level findings from Uganda, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia and Kenya, which will also appear in the upcoming report. Governance can differ significantly between theory and practice, with limited institutional capacity and human resources causing real-world breakdowns. One example Avramović mentions is when service delivery changes to prioritize new digital credentials in a way that makes an optional ID practically mandatory. Civil society organizations in Ethiopia participating in the workshops observed this problem, he says. The situation creates a “hot potato” of responsibility, Avramović says. Adding complexity, digital ID risks can occur anywhere in the system, depending on the context and architecture of the system. Regulators must also handle additional pressures caused by emerging technologies. Cross-regulatory sandboxes can help, but Avramović expects the challenge to continue. More training and resources on their own will not be sufficient to empower regulators to effectively address harms, Avramović warns. Technological solutions and a holistic approach are needed, he says. National DPAs often have a single biometrics expert on staff, who must handle all complaints related to the technology.

3 paths and a framework of frameworks

Interoperability is typically achieved through a federated body or broker, wallet-based credential presentation, or direct API integration, Professor Carsten Maple of the Turing Institute says. These three paths come with different limitations. But all three require common trust arrangements between the parties to cover who is trusted, what data and protocols mean and set required levels of confidence. Identity records from two authorities (usually from different governments) must match and the relying party must be authorized to trust the data. Austroads, ICAO and OpenID have each shown how particular types of evidence can cross borders to support specific claims. At the same time, the SIDI Hub interoperability tests showed that work remains for systems to accommodate different national policies and architectures. The EU’s Digital Identity Wallet pilots have shown the need to test common specifications across different parties, and work by NOBID has shown that the right domestic record to authenticate against is not always clear (such as for people with the same name). LAC Digital Citizen showed the power of regional trust frameworks. Later in the workshop, Maple presented the Standards-Aligned Assessment Framework for Interoperable Identity (SAAFII), which he describes as “a framework-of-frameworks” that can be used as a diagnostic tool. During development of the tool, Turing researchers found that existing standards address much of the technical interoperability problem, while responsibility and governance remain key challenges. Technical sophistication can also conceal legal, institutional and trust gaps.

Data protection and intermediary layers

Data protection regulation can also act as trust infrastructure for interoperability, according to Ibukunoluwa Owa of the Nigerian Data Protection Commission and the Digital Impact Alliance. Nigeria’s law states that data protection regulations apply to NINs wherever they are stored or processed, Owa says. That means interoperability must come with regulatory equivalence or some other mechanisms – binding corporate rules, certifications or codes of conduct, for example – in other jurisdictions. Another approach is seen in the Smart Africa Data Exchange (SADX) pilot, which uses a federated trust platform owned by member states, explained Jeanne Yamfashije of Smart Africa. Benin, Ghana and Rwanda were selected for the pilot based on their readiness, but Yamfashije says the principal gap between them was trust, rather than technology. To address that gap, behind the platform sit trust lists of certified solutions and rules set by SATA (Smart Africa Trust Alliance). These are enforced by a governance structure that includes working groups, the Smart Africa Secretariat, and monitoring and supervisory committees. The platform also allows data to be processed without being transmitted to or stored in another country. Yamfashije identifies six key challenges: data protection approval, legal basis, assurance equivalence, national readiness, liability and redress, and coverage limitations. The financial industry also wants to see KYC interoperability, and is therefore happy to help governments move in that direction, says Damola Owolade of financial services market facilitator Finmark Trust at the South African Development Community (SADC). How exactly that will work in the SADC region is hard to say, however. Only a couple of digital ID wallets are available in the region, he says, and the  consent mechanism built into Malawi’s wallet is a once-only process, so may not work with requirements of consent for a particular transaction.

Cross-border MOSIP through eSignet and OIDC chains

Beyond technical, legal and regulatory alignment, operational factors are important too. Security and availability are also required for effective interoperability, notes MOSIP VP and Head of Country Implementation Krishnan Rajagopalan. He advises countries to remember the need for defined service-level expectations and incident escalation procedures. Dr. Mirko Bottarelli explained how MOSIP ecosystems can connect to each other through eSignet by chaining OIDC flows, which avoids data privacy or scalability challenges that he says would otherwise make cross-border interactions impractical. Bottarelli cites interoperability efforts by Mercosur, ECOWAS and Ukraine as evidence of significant progress this year. These efforts also highlight the importance of scalability, even as implementation continues to lag regulation.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/practical-implementation-is-cross-border-digital-ids-weak-spot/feed 0 361071 Facewatch pilots free retail crime intelligence platform alongside facial recognition https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/facewatch-pilots-free-retail-crime-intelligence-platform-alongside-facial-recognition https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/facewatch-pilots-free-retail-crime-intelligence-platform-alongside-facial-recognition#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 20:54:54 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=361044 Facewatch has begun live beta testing of Facewatch Live, a free retail crime intelligence platform that lets retailers document incidents, identify repeat offenders and assemble evidence for police investigations. Facewatch Live can operate independently of the company's live facial recognition system or alongside it, allowing retailers to combine incident reporting with biometric identification. The platform also allows retailers to link multiple incidents with the same offender profile that can be compiled into structured case files for submission to police forces. The expansion comes amid growing scrutiny of Facewatch's facial recognition technology in UK retail. Facewatch supported tighter regulation of the technology as privacy campaigners challenge its use. The debate also follows an incident in which a Sainsbury's customer was wrongly identified as a shoplifter and removed from a store. Although Facewatch Live can operate without facial recognition, its incident records could still contain sensitive personal information, including CCTV images, suspected offender profiles, and allegations of theft. The UK's Information Commissioner's Office states that data protection rights extend to suspected offenses and unproven allegations. Retailers are already adopting crime intelligence platforms to improve incident reporting and investigations. Asda plans to deploy Auror Core across its stores following a 30-store trial in London. The UK's College of Policing has also documented the use of Auror for direct police reporting. During a Devon and Cornwall Police deployment, crimes reported through the platform had higher charge rates and shorter reporting times. Frasers Group is among the first retailers testing the Facewatch system in daily operations. “Retail operators should not have to pay simply to understand what is going on in their own businesses, and the process of reporting crime should not come with a price tag,” says Nick Fisher, chief executive officer of Facewatch.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/facewatch-pilots-free-retail-crime-intelligence-platform-alongside-facial-recognition/feed 0 361044 Florida proposes Safe Screens Act to put age assurance on social media, chatbots https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/florida-proposes-safe-screens-act-to-put-age-assurance-on-social-media-chatbots https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/florida-proposes-safe-screens-act-to-put-age-assurance-on-social-media-chatbots#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:55:11 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=361025 Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has proposed new legislation, called the Safe Screens Act, which would build on existing laws by requiring “age determination and parental consent” before minors download or buy apps, and impose protective design features on accounts belonging to users between 14 and 17 years old. A release from the AG’s office says the law would also prohibit AI chatbots from “providing minors features that simulate companionship, encourage harm, generate sexual content, or claim to be human.” Uthmeier’s proposal lands after a court stayed an injunction against Meta demanding the removal of addictive features such as infinite scroll, 24-hour access and cosmetic filters that contribute to body-image problems. Meta had appealed the injunction. Per a report in Florida Today, Uthmeier chose further litigation instead of accepting the $17 billion multistate settlement Meta agreed to in August, which he dismisses as “peanuts” for the company. Only two other states refused. Seemingly determined to bring down the hammer on Big Social, Uthmeier says the Safe Screens Act goes further than HB 3, the current law prohibiting social media accounts for anyone under 14 – and that he is determined to see it through. “Parents deserve real control, and companies must design for safety, not addiction,” Uthmeier says, invoking the language of a digital duty of care. “If you invite Florida’s children onto your platform, you have a duty to keep them safe.” Uthmeier has been on something of a tear lately, also suing Discord and declaring the messaging platform a public nuisance. In his speech announcing the Safe Screens Act, he detailed how online predators use social media to groom and abuse kids. “We’re gonna fight back,” he says. “We told them we’ll see them in court. We stand to make a lot more money in court than caving, settling, selling out our kids for pennies on the dollar.”

Age restrictions, but also time limits, hidden likes

The Safe Screens Act’s requirement for “age determination and parental consent” in fact endorses the age assurance model social media companies have campaigned for. “App stores and similar marketplaces must determine the user’s age, link minors to a parent’s account, and obtain parental consent before a minor downloads or buys an app from a covered platform,” says the AG’s office, describing the declared age range model at the OS level being deployed via APIs in Apple and Google’s app platforms. Protective design features for users under 18 include a quiet mode that blocks access from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., and during school hours on academic-year weekdays. “Platforms must hide like, comment, and reaction counts by default; only a verified parent may enable them, with a 30-day opt-out prompt.” Autoplay and infinite scroll are off by default, and also require parental consent to turn on. A time limit of 2 hours daily and 60 hours monthly applies. Furthermore “AI chatbot operators and platforms must determine account holder’s age. Operating systems must apply age-appropriate restrictions at the device level based on the user’s age.” Chatbots can’t get intimate, encourage self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, or illegal activity; claim to be human; or “encourage isolation or discourage help from appropriate adults.” In terms of technology specs, Florida says “all age determination must use commercially reasonable, privacy-protective methods.” “Knowing or reckless violations” are unfair practices under Florida law, and subject to fines of up to $50,000 per violation. But Uthmeier is looking for a much bigger payout than that; his “see you in court” speech references the recent court decision ordering Meta to pay $25 billion to New Mexico in a data privacy case.

‘Age determination’ is an unnecessary lexical variant

Regardless of the success of Florida’s Safe Screens Act, it introduces a new wrinkle into the lexicon of age assurance. “Age determination” is closer in spirit to “age verification,” with its requirement for an initial reference against a date of birth, than it is to “age assurance,” which implies that the relying party can be assured a customer or user is old enough to gain access to a product or service. To “determine” implies discovery of a fact, and therefore its verification. As such, it would seem to exclude facial age estimation technologies, which do not use a date of birth for reference, but rather guess at a user’s age based on a real-time analysis of facial features and geometry. The specifics of Florida’s law are for Florida to determine. But the definitions and terminology of age assurance are now standardized under ISO/IEC 27566. One questions the wisdom of adding a redundant term into the mix, which will inevitably only weaken trust in technologies that are moving toward standardization as a matter of transparency.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/florida-proposes-safe-screens-act-to-put-age-assurance-on-social-media-chatbots/feed 0 361025 Age assurance reshapes the internet as platform accountability gains ground https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/age-assurance-reshapes-the-internet-as-platform-accountability-gains-ground https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/age-assurance-reshapes-the-internet-as-platform-accountability-gains-ground#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:50:46 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=360985 The internet is now old enough that it is subject to the curse of nostalgia: online, things just aren’t like they used to be. A new report from Freedom House observes “seismic shifts on the global internet,” one of which is how online safety regulations have driven adoption of age assurance technologies like facial age estimation and biometric age verification. “The shape of the internet is changing, as governments across the ideological spectrum erect new barriers to how people access information and express themselves online,” it says. “Global internet freedom declined for the 16th consecutive year amid these significant shifts.” While the report notes efforts by authorities in Iran and Russia to cut connections to the global internet over the past year, and declines in online freedom in Jordan and Nigeria, the data is somewhat skewed, in that it includes, among the factors curtailing internet freedom, “new measures to age-gate access to social media platforms.” “Age assurance is reshaping the internet, as laws mandating age checks for social media use take effect around the world,” the report says. “Policymakers have pursued these measures at full speed since Australia’s under-16 social media ban, the first in the world, took effect in December 2025. As the laws entered into force, people encountered new barriers to online content and new risks to privacy and security.” It also claims that “the world’s repressive leaders have already sought to leverage so-called age-gating mandates for their own ends, such as invasive online surveillance.”

Freedom House puts age checks in wider internet freedom debate

Freedom House, then, places age assurance regulations alongside threats to internet freedom including government-imposed internet blackouts in Iran and restrictions imposed by authoritarian governments in Russia and China. Its argument that age checks have already been used to tighten repression rests on theoretical examples in Türkiye and China – both governments with long histories of strict rule and dubious civil rights records. In the end, there is nothing unreasonable in the statement that “the speedy adoption of age-assurance social media bans represents the most significant live experiment in internet regulation in years, and the consequences for internet freedom demand due consideration.” This is correct. Where the paper errs is in following up with the assertion that “the current state of age-inference and age-verification technology, for example, cannot mitigate the privacy and security risks introduced by their large-scale use; further technical research is needed to advance age-assurance methods that are truly privacy-preserving.” There is certainly continued development of privacy-preserving age assurance models – but the claim that two radically different types of age checks pose the same privacy risks ignores both categorical subtleties in age assurance technology and the established network of age assurance providers already operating at scale in jurisdictions like the UK and Australia, in compliance with international standards.

Australia example held up as failure, but model is evolving

Of the latter, the report highlights the problem of circumvention, citing “early surveys and news reports” indicating that teens have “evaded the ban at significant rates, sometimes by manipulating age-estimation and age-verification algorithms.” “Children have evaded age-assurance mechanisms at considerable scale, remaining connected to social media platforms that are still rife with problems of the digital age,” it says. “A rights-respecting pursuit of child safety requires action by policymakers and the private sector to resolve the long-standing problems of the social internet.” In this, it shows alignment with the plotted course of online safety regulation worldwide. Regulators in Australia are well aware that their age assurance law is under intense scrutiny, and while the eSafety Commissioner has been clear that the true results of the project will only emerge over the long term, the government has moved steadily toward a duty of care model that places broader legal obligations on platforms, rather than relying solely on age gating. This, in turn, aligns with the shift toward an “age appropriate” or “age adaptive” model, in which a platform’s content and function are tailored to a user’s confirmed age band or verified age. On a high level, the online safety debate is moving from restricted access to design changes that eliminate some of the problems social media has created. To hold social media companies to account, governments will need robust legal mechanisms: this is the function of the digital duty of care model, which, in some proposals, includes personal legal consequences for company executives.

Fragmentation erodes trust with each degree of separation

A report from Defend Digital Me focuses on the UK legal landscape, asking, “who is age-gating our life online?” The paper promises “analysis of the technology used in the Australian Social Media Ban, emerging proposals in Europe, and the outcomes for privacy and data protection rights.” While some of its findings will be obvious to industry observers, the report also makes several novel points about the age assurance ecosystem that are worth consideration. In the former category is the observation that “every age check is a commercial process. Platforms pay other companies per check.” This is tied to a case study of an unnamed provider, which the report presents as evidence that providers are profiting from privacy risk. More compelling is the finding that “the social media app often isn’t the company doing the check.” The report asserts that “a child signing up to a platform in one country is told the name of the age-check orchestrator, but their ID is processed by another company in another country, and their face by a third company in a liveness check. Children have no relationship with most of these companies and rarely know who they are.” Some of this is true, notably the last part. The fragmented nature of online safety tech, while not a revelation, is a legitimate problem – one the industry's trend toward consolidation and broader product offerings may help address.

‘Turn your head slightly’: a story of stolen agency

Most interesting is the objection that “children are taught to perform for the camera on demand.” “Face scans are least accurate near the age being checked, so young people close to it are the most likely to be sent on to harder checks, including some that ask them to smile, turn their head or speak aloud,” the report alleges. “A child who learns that complying whether they want to or not, is the price of taking part and required for their ‘safety’ is being taught the opposite of what safeguarding requires.” This is a conceptual argument resting on the notion that asking children to comply as a condition of participation and safety is unusual in our society. But children are asked to comply all the time: at school, when it’s time for them to brush their teeth, at church, or in social situations. Asking a minor to turn their head is not a major imposition and is unlikely to foment long-standing resentment or trauma. It is worth considering, though, because it acknowledges the larger questions at play in the debate over age assurance regulation and technology. In this case, the questions are, what are we willing to ask kids to do to gain access to a range of platforms that are, at best, pretty bad for them even if they’re sometimes useful? And, what are kids willing to do? Does the idea of digital privacy translate across generations and lead to the same conclusions? Jen Persson, director of Defend Digital Me, makes another interesting if unconvincing point, which gestures at the broader state of surveillance culture. “We spend years teaching children that when an adult or a stranger online tells them to do something with their body on camera, they should stop and it is unsafe,” Persson says. “Age checks teach them the opposite.”

Verification always means an initial reference to a date of birth

A final claim casts some doubt on how well the organization did its research. “Claims of ‘no ID needed’ are untrue for age verification,” it says. “Bank checks and digital ID wallets rest on a document checked earlier in the process, if not directly by the platform.” The international standard for age assurance systems, ISO/IEC 27566-1, clearly defines an age verification method as an “age assurance method based on calculating the difference between a verified year or date of birth of an individual and a subsequent date.” Age verification under ISO/IEC 27566-1 relies on a verified year or date of birth, typically established through an identity document or authoritative source. That does not mean a user must present an identity document for every subsequent check, or disclose their date of birth to the platform. Finally, Defend Digital Me says Australia’s regulation is “failing on its own terms, and costs children their rights.” “One in two say they now get less news, just as the UK plans to give 16 and 17-year-olds the vote,” it says. The finding raises a separate question about the consequences of age restrictions for young people's access to news and information, regardless of the platform through which they receive it. The organization is calling for the government to publish Ofcom’s assessment, “with a full human rights impact assessment including dedicated attention to child rights, and to open that to genuine and expert consultation” before it finalizes regulations under the Online Safety Act. “We also ask it to end the routine processing of children’s facial and bodily data for age checks, and to hear children’s views on age verification methods before the rules are written.”

Age assurance providers must introduce themselves to the world

The takeaway for the age assurance industry is, so to speak, clear. Promises of transparency in data handling and compliance only matter if users know who is behind them. Muddying the responsibility for age checks creates distrust from users who want a clear path to liability. Providers, perhaps wary of too much attention from the wrong crowds, are not highly visible companies. Small, unfamiliar logos on age check prompts are many users’ first encounter with these firms. Having seen how some have fared, providers may feel inclined to avoid public scrutiny. Instead, they should embrace visibility and invite scrutiny. If the adoption of age-assurance social media regulations represents the most significant live experiment in internet regulation in years, it should be conducted by companies that can back up their claims and defend themselves with evidence when challenged. It may not be feasible for an age assurance provider to sponsor the Olympics or run an ad during the Super Bowl. But the time for public engagement has already begun; trust, in the end, boils down to who you know.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/age-assurance-reshapes-the-internet-as-platform-accountability-gains-ground/feed 0 360985 Vietnam proposes digital ID law to tackle fraud, expand national framework https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/vietnam-proposes-digital-id-law-to-tackle-fraud-expand-national-framework https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/vietnam-proposes-digital-id-law-to-tackle-fraud-expand-national-framework#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:48:00 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=361015 Vietnam's government has submitted a draft Law on Electronic Identification and Authentication to the National Assembly to strengthen digital identity security and combat online fraud. Presented by Minister of Public Security Lương Tam Quang, the draft legislation would establish rules for the creation, management and use of electronic identities and authentication services, according to Vietnam News. The legislation would establish a national electronic identification and authentication system incorporating Vietnam's VNeID platform, which has been expanding its use cases. Rules for authentication providers, cybersecurity requirements and liability frameworks would be established. It also proposes mechanisms for the cross-border recognition of electronic identities, which the government says could help Vietnamese businesses meet international requirements and participate more effectively in global digital trade. Vietnam is currently in the process of piloting the connection of its VNeID with Singapore’s Singpass and Laos’ LAeID. In addition to individuals and organizations, the proposed framework would extend digital identification to a wider range of entities. This would include products, assets, databases, software, digital services, transactions and digital assets. This is designed to support trusted digital transactions while addressing challenges such as anonymous SIM cards, fake online accounts, cybercrime and increasingly sophisticated biometric fraud enabled by AI. It would prohibit the use of fake biometric data, AI-generated images and other methods used to falsify digital identities. While lawmakers broadly supported the proposal, parliamentary reviewers raised a number of concerns. These focus on privacy safeguards, data collection limits and implementation costs. There is also the practicality of extending electronic identification to a wide range of physical and digital entities, according to reports. Calls for clearer rules on data protection, interoperability standards and service-provider accountability have been raised. If approved, the law would provide the legal foundation for Vietnam's next phase of digital identity development and support wider adoption of digital government and digital economy services.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/vietnam-proposes-digital-id-law-to-tackle-fraud-expand-national-framework/feed 0 361015 Socure launches Agent Intelligence to verify who’s behind AI agents https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/socure-launches-agent-intelligence-to-verify-whos-behind-ai-agents https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/socure-launches-agent-intelligence-to-verify-whos-behind-ai-agents#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:39:33 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=360995 Socure has launched Agent Intelligence, a suite that detects AI agents, scores whether they should be trusted, and ties each one to the verified person or business that authorized it. The October 27 launch comes as major banks acknowledge growing difficulty distinguishing authorized AI agents from other automated activity in customer accounts. Axios reported that major U.S. banks are detecting third-party AI agents inside customer accounts, some taking actions that appear independent of user instructions. Most of these agents arrive with the customer's blessing and the customer's password. To the bank, they look exactly like the customer. One executive told the outlet the industry struggles to distinguish one agent from another, let alone an agent the customer authorized from one that has gone rogue. The banks' response has been blunt. Morgan Stanley has begun blocking third-party agents, while JPMorgan, Bank of America and Citi are restricting them, and most institutions are moving toward read-only access of the kind already granted to budgeting apps. Executives concede they need a middle ground but have not said what it looks like. Socure is betting that the middle ground is an identity problem, and that it already holds most of the answer.

Three layers, two sides of the market

Socure describes Agent Intelligence as purpose-built for agents that cross a trust boundary when interacting with online services and applications. It comes in three layers that the company says go beyond simple Know Your Agent (KYA) tools. Agent Detection spots and classifies AI agents in a service's traffic, and is generally available today inside Socure's Digital Intelligence offering. Agent TrustScore judges whether a given agent, and the action it is attempting, should be trusted; it is open to beta customers now. Agent Credential gives an agent verifiable proof of who it is, who it represents and what it may do, and is due to reach general availability in the second quarter of 2027.

A problem growing faster than defenses

The scale behind the launch is striking. Socure says daily requests from AI agents grew by more than 1,700 percent in the year to September 2026. The company also notes that nonhuman traffic now accounts for more than half of internet activity. McKinsey estimates that AI agents could mediate between $3 trillion and $5 trillion of global consumer commerce by 2030. In Socure's view, the banks' current approach of treating this as a human-versus-bot problem and restricting access is a dead end. "Block them all and you block your next customer. Let them all in and you hand fraudsters the keys. The way out isn't better bot detection. It's knowing which human is on the other end of the agent, which is the same problem we've been solving for fourteen years," said Johnny Ayers, founder and CEO of Socure. Socure divides the emerging Know Your Agent category into two camps. Edge vendors detect automation but know nothing about the person behind the action. Credential schemes verify an attestation but cannot evaluate the principal who issued it. Both, the company argues, answer what is making a request. Neither answers whose agent it is, or whether that person should be trusted.

Making the agent a known entity

Socure's answer is to treat agents as nodes in the same global identity graph that already carries SocureID and a global device identifier, spanning more than 11 billion identity decisions a year. The first layer, Agent Detection, identifies and classifies agentic traffic across web, mobile and API interactions, whether or not the agent declares itself. Rather than issuing a binary verdict, it returns a confidence score and reason codes, because control of a session can pass between a human and an agent partway through. Socure says the aim is to go beyond flagging automation and to persistently identify agents, so a relying party can decide whether to trust one rather than block it by default. In controlled lab testing, the company says named consumer agents including Muse and Instinct were identified with near-perfect accuracy across roughly 700 behavioral variables. The second layer, Agent TrustScore, rests on the idea that each sensitive action needs its own trust assessment, even when the agent is tied to a legitimate person or business. The composite score draws on three categories of data. Identity covers who the agent is and who stands behind it. Authorization covers what it is permitted to do and whether the action falls within that permission. Risk covers what the principal's and operator's history indicates, including signs of replay or impersonation. The three are returned separately, so customers can weight them according to their use case, and then allow, limit, step up or deny the action under their own policy. The third layer, Agent Credential, is a W3C Verifiable Credential that operators issue to their agents through Agent Registration. It binds the agent to a KYC- or KYB-verified person or business in Socure's identity graph and carries evidence of delegated authority. Any site can verify the credential without calling Socure. Socure says cryptographic chaining and proof of possession help maintain credential integrity across delegation chains and protect against credential theft and replay.

Agnostic by design

Socure has deliberately made Agent Intelligence agnostic to agent type, presentation and credential issuer. A trust score that only worked for Socure-issued agents would be useless to a relying party, the company says, so TrustScore evaluates credentials from any issuer as well as agents that carry no credential at all. That design choice addresses the reality banks face today, where most agents arrive with nothing but a borrowed password. For banks caught between blocking and read-only access, the pitch is a third option: let agents in, but know whose they are and judge each action on its merits. Whether that holds up will depend on evidence beyond Socure's own lab tests, on whether agent operators adopt the credential once it ships in 2027, and on how regulators and courts eventually assign liability when an agent the customer trusted does something the customer never asked for.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/socure-launches-agent-intelligence-to-verify-whos-behind-ai-agents/feed 0 360995 South Africa’s bank network for issuing biometric IDs delivers 1M in 7 months https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/south-africas-bank-network-for-issuing-biometric-ids-delivers-1m-in-7-months https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/south-africas-bank-network-for-issuing-biometric-ids-delivers-1m-in-7-months#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 19:20:56 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=361006 More than one million South Africans have obtained biometric Smart ID cards through the country's banks in seven months, accelerating the replacement of fraud-prone Green ID Books. The Department of Home Affairs launched the decentralized issuance model in March to accelerate the replacement of Green ID Books, 14.7 million of which are still in circulation. Home Affairs plans to stop producing Green ID Books on March 31, 2027, and withdraw their recognition as valid identification on March 31, 2028. The new cards are intended to enable biometric verification of holders to confirm their eligibility for social benefits delivered by the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). The milestone is a win for the Home Affairs @ home digital reform effort, according to a government announcement. Home Affairs issued just over 4 million Smart IDs in 2025 and 3.4 million in 2024. About 2.7 million Smart IDs were issued between 2022 and 2023, Home Affairs said at the beginning of 2026. That means not counting Smart IDs issued directly by Home Affairs this year, there are now approximately 11.1 million Smart IDs issued in total. South Africans were only able to register for and receive Smart IDs through 214 permanent Home Affairs offices when the Government of  National Unity took power mid-2024, according to the announcement. Home Affairs partnered with a series of banks earlier this year, including Absa in July, expanding the Smart ID service to 669 bank branches nationwide. “This milestone serves as unequivocal proof that our focus on the wholesale digital transformation of all departmental processes is rapidly addressing long-standing challenges,” says Minister of Home Affairs Dr. Leon Schreiber. “Through this reform programme, we are transforming security, eliminating queues and paperwork, combatting identity theft, and redefining the efficiency of public service delivery – all at once.” Schreiber says five-minute digital applications for Smart IDs and passports, along with home delivery, will be available at more than 1,000 bank branches within months. The Minister was also the first person in the country to receive the national digital ID a month ago. The planned reforms also include an upgrade of the MyMzansi DPI platform, which the government announced a $9 million budget boost for last week.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/south-africas-bank-network-for-issuing-biometric-ids-delivers-1m-in-7-months/feed 0 361006 BixeLab confirms Advance.ai liveness to Level 3 PAD https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/bixelab-confirms-advance-ai-liveness-to-level-3-pad https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/bixelab-confirms-advance-ai-liveness-to-level-3-pad#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:57:58 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=360953 Advance.ai has passed a Level 3 biometric presentation attack detection (PAD) evaluation conducted by BixeLab against the ISO/IEC 30107-3 standard. The result of the ISO/IEC 30107-3-based test indicates protection against more advanced spoof attacks than the Level 2 test iBeta performed for Advance.ai in 2024. That means it offers higher-security protection for KYC processes with selfie biometrics, a timely development given that victims across East and Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand lost as much as US$114 billion in 2025, according to stats from a UN report cited in the announcement. The company’s Liveness Detection SDK v4.2.0 completed the test with an Attack Presentation Classification Error Rate (APCER) of 0 percent across 125 highly sophisticated presentation attacks. Two classification errors were observed across 50 bona fide presentations. Both were observed with the same test subject, though, which also completed other attempts successfully and carried out five additional validation transactions without errors, according to the Letter of Confirmation. Advance.ai also earned confirmation of compliance to the CEN/TS 18099 European standard for biometric injection attack detection (IAD) from BixeLab earlier this year. The new evaluations combine to represent protection against sophisticated fraud attacks that use AI to either defeat legacy liveness detection or bypass it altogether. “Sophisticated fraudsters are getting better at bypassing liveness checks that confirm a real person is present when opening an account or applying for a loan," says Advance.ai Head of AI Alfred Yu. “Passing PAD Level 3 gives banks and financial services firms third-party proof that our biometric technology holds up against sophisticated spoofing attacks, and greater confidence in the security of their identity verification processes. This milestone puts Advance.ai among a select group of identity verification providers worldwide to pass PAD Level 3.”]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/bixelab-confirms-advance-ai-liveness-to-level-3-pad/feed 0 360953 Fayda national ID helps drive Ethiopia’s digital finance ecosystem https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/fayda-national-id-helps-drive-ethiopias-digital-finance-ecosystem https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/fayda-national-id-helps-drive-ethiopias-digital-finance-ecosystem#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:56:34 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=361062 Ethiopian President Taye Atske Selassie has hailed the country's Fayda national digital ID as a key driver of the digital financial ecosystem as seen in the growing number of mobile money and mobile banking accounts. Selassie made the remarks recently as he addressed the 10th session of the Statistical Commission for Africa in Addis Ababa, FMC reports. He said in the first nine months of 2026, Ethiopia had a combined 257 million mobile money and mobile banking accounts, responsible for more than 24 trillion birr, approximately US$148 billion worth of transactions. The president attributed the growth to Fayda, which he said is increasingly becoming an important shared infrastructure to identify customers, link financial accounts, and support trusted digital transactions in the Horn of Africa country. Apart from the Fayda integration, which is expanding the digital financial space in Ethiopia, the president mentioned other aspects which include the government's resolve to liberalize the financial sector and strengthen interoperable payment infrastructure, as part of implementation of the country's national digital payment strategy. The announcement by President Taye is in tandem with the vision of the Ethiopian National ID Program, now Faydaverse, which has been driving digital ID-bank harmonization as a hallmark of the country's next chapter of digital identity development. Ethiopia's National Bank ordered the harmonization drive in December last year, directing banks to align customer account information with Fayda IDs by March 30, 2026, and to use the VeriFayda 2 eKYC system for new account openings. A blog article by the ID program reiterates how the integration of Fayda with banking institutions is streamlining access to services and enhancing the security of transactions. It recalls how previously, bank users relied more on physical identification documents, including local kebele IDs, passports, driving licenses, and employee cards to complete Know Your Customer (KYC) processes for banking services. Now with the harmonization, it requires just the 12-digit Fayda ID number to get one going with a banking transaction. The analysis argues that the integration of Fayda for banking has several benefits. Apart from strong eKYC checks, which reduce exposure to identity-related fraud, it also helps in ensuring more consistent customer records and simpler account management across financial institutions, as well as quicker customer onboarding and enhanced access to services such as digital lending, online account opening, and interoperable payments. It notes that despite the existing challenges in the harmonization process, successes are being recorded, and stakeholders hope the policy will further strengthen Ethiopia's digital payment landscape and advance financial inclusion for millions of citizens. According to experts, the experience in Ethiopia shows that digital identity is moving from onboarding to core infrastructure, and that identity is increasingly playing a central role as a connector across the digital public infrastructure ecosystem. Ethiopia has issued 53 million Fayda numbers and the country has positioned the foundational infrastructure as a pillar of its 2030 Digital Ethiopia strategy. Authorities are also banking on the infrastructure to drive many aspects of the state’s digital transformation vision as they looks forward to building a digital sovereign state.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/fayda-national-id-helps-drive-ethiopias-digital-finance-ecosystem/feed 0 361062 Trust Stamp targets Nigerian biometric ID programs with 3-year BLIP deal https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/trust-stamp-targets-nigerian-biometric-id-programs-with-3-year-blip-deal https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/trust-stamp-targets-nigerian-biometric-id-programs-with-3-year-blip-deal#respond Tue, 27 Oct 2026 16:55:39 +0000 https://www.biometricupdate.com/?p=360964 Trust Stamp has signed a three-year, multi-million-dollar technology services and data sovereignty agreement with BLIP Limited, a Nigerian provider of national-scale digital registration and certification platforms for the Nigerian government. According to a release, the deal will see Trust Stamp provide AI-Powered identity tools for government programs in Nigeria, using its patented Irreversibly Transformed Identity Token (IT2) technology, which converts biometric and other identifying data into tokens designed to protect the underlying personal information. The company expects to exceed one million enrollments within the first year of roll out. Trust Stamp CEO Gareth N. Genner calls the agreement “a significant milestone in our African growth strategy and one of the largest deployments of our technology to date.” “Governments across the continent are looking for identity infrastructure that is secure, scalable and sovereign, and our partnership with BLIP demonstrates how our privacy-preserving technology can support programs reaching tens of millions of people,” Genner says. Jonathan Patscheider, Trust Stamp’s SVP, says the company is seeing strong demand for the model across the region, and sees the Nigerian partnership as a foundation to build on. Trust Stamp has been in discussions with the Nigerian government since February, regarding the potential to work together on digital trust to underpin efforts to grow a trillion dollar digital economy by 2030.

Tech sovereignty a priority for governments in Africa

Per the release, the Trust Stamp-supported system will be deployed in a customer-hosted environment, “ensuring that all project data remains under Nigerian control and is processed in line with the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023.” Freeman Musa Yusuf, managing director and CEO of BLIP Limited, notes how tech sovereignty is a factor in decisions about national infrastructure. “Africa must not merely consume the technologies that shape its future; we must build, govern and deploy the infrastructure that enables our people, institutions and economies to thrive,” he says, calling the partnership with Trust Stamp “an important step in that direction.” “For Nigeria, this is an opportunity to strengthen local ownership and control over critical digital infrastructure. For Africa, it demonstrates the potential of partnerships that combine global innovation with strong African implementation capability.”

Africa leveraging tech to reset global dynamics

As Africa continues to develop its digital identity ecosystem, shared frameworks and networks are becoming an essential feature. BLIP and Trust Stamp are explicit in offering “a sovereign technology model with relevance to other African markets.” As a reflection of “a broader opportunity for African technology companies to work with global technology innovators while developing local capacity, strengthening institutional trust and supporting the continent’s digital transformation,” the deal is yet more evidence of the rapid digitization of economies in Africa, and more reason to believe digital transformation could be an equalizing force in terms of global influence, power and sovereignty.]]> https://www.biometricupdate.com/202610/trust-stamp-targets-nigerian-biometric-id-programs-with-3-year-blip-deal/feed 0 360964