Biometrics

Star Alliance, the world's largest airline alliance, wants roughly half its 26 members to use biometrics technology by 2025, as passenger demand grows for contactless travel and less airport congestion after Covid-19. By increasing the number of airport touchpoints where passengers can use biometrics technology, such as facial comparison which allows someone to use their face as a boarding pass, Star Alliance hopes to reduce processing time through airport security, baggage drop, departure gates and lounges. The group…

After nearly two weeks of recent United Nations negotiations in New York City, countries from around the world failed to finalize an ambitious treaty that would create enormous marine protected areas and enforce stricter rules for industry on the high seas—the two thirds of the ocean beyond any country’s exclusive ocean territory. The deal faltered in the final hours, mainly over an issue that has long dogged international ocean talks: how to share profits from commercializing the high seas’ genetic resources. Ocean…

Data protection, in combination with biometrics, has become a powerful cocktail – for both the right and wrong reasons. On the one hand, the unprecedented capabilities of biometric identification could provide a big reason for today’s businesses to smile. However, many of them sweat hard trying to prevent legal issues, such as lawsuits based on the Illinois privacy protection act. Having one’s face saved in a database for unknown purposes can make consumers feel uncomfortable – not necessarily because it could be misused,…

Photo: AmazonAmazon’s slowly making good on its goal of one day turning your entire body into one big money oozing meatsuit. First up, your palms.In the coming weeks, Amazon plans to expand its “Amazon One” palm reading biometric payment system to 65 Whole Foods Markets throughout California, starting with locations in Malibu, Montana Avenue, and Santa Monica. The expansion, first reported on by The Verge, marks the biggest step forward yet in Amazon’s effort to normalize biometric payments.Amazon One works by linking a…

Ultrasound scanners, which image the inside of the human body, are a life-saving medical tool. Now researchers have shrunk the handheld ultrasound probe—which typically requires a highly trained technician to move over the skin—down to a flat chip that is the size of a postage stamp and sticks to the skin with a special bioadhesive. The new device can record high-resolution videos for two days at a stretch, capturing blood vessels and hearts laboring during exercise or stomachs expanding and shrinking as test subjects…

Aadhaar is a national identity card issued by the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI). Many Indians now have an Aadhaar card and you can use it to verify your identity while getting a new SIM card, gas connection, or even to make payments. Your Aadhaar data includes biometric information such as a retina scan and fingerprint scans too, so it’s a commonly used method of authentication. Instead of filling up long forms for everything that requires a valid photo ID, you could use your Aadhaar card and…

View of the biometric facial recognition system in front of a security checkpoint in the departure area of Hamburg Airport. Photo: Marcus Brandt (AP)A group of House lawmakers charged with investigating the implications of biometric surveillance empaneled three experts Wednesday to testify about the future of facial recognition and other tools widely employed by the U.S. government with little regard for citizens’ privacy.The experts described a country—and a world—that is being saturated with biometric sensors. Hampered…

Google has agreed to pay $100 million to Illinois residents to settle a class-action lawsuit over one of its facial recognition features in Google Photos (via Gizmodo). The complaint alleges Google’s face grouping tool, which automatically identifies your face in photos and videos uploaded to Photos, violates Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). Introduced in 2008, the BIPA bars companies from collecting and storing any sort of biometric data, including a “retina or iris scan, fingerprint, voiceprint, or…

Google was allegedly collecting biometric data from photos without notifying users.Photo: Leon Neal (Getty Images)Google took another hit today. The tech company has settled for $100 million following a class action lawsuit in Illinois over data privacy concerns from users of the Google Photos app.Why did Google get sued?A class action lawsuit was filed by the plaintiffs against Google, alleging that the company broke Illinois’ Biometric Information Privacy Act. The act states that any private company collecting…

NEW DELHI: The value of biometrically authenticated remote mobile payments is likely to reach $1.2 trillion globally by 2027, from $332 billion in 2022, a new report showed on Monday (May 30, 2022).These transactions use biometrics, typically facial and fingerprint recognition, to authenticate remote mobile payments.This growth of 365%, according to Juniper Research, is driven by recent regulatory changes, with the introduction of SCA (strong customer authentication) pushing greater adoption. The SCA requirement of PSD2…