Australia
Australia’s services minister Bill Shorten has launched the country’s long-awaited myGov mobile app, which includes electronic wallet capabilities aimed at integrating digital services across government agencies.
The myGov platform is the federal government’s largest authenticated digital platform. It includes 25 million linked accounts and records more than a million sign-ins every day. It was depended upon heavily during Australia’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The associated app, which took eight years to develop, was launched at the Sydney Opera House. Shorten said that Australians had “at long last” access to a portal that would make government services simpler and more accessible.
The app uses common biometric tests, such as facial recognition, fingerprints and six-digit numbers, giving citizens access to 15 different services directly from their devices.
The app will include the Healthcare Card and Seniors Healthcare Card, with a Medicare Card due in March 2023 and would also incorporate a QR code function to enable people to prove their identity.
Europe
French technology company Thales has partnered with FinTech Handsome to develop a payment solution that protects visually impaired people from fraud. The innovative card vocalises the amount of each transaction before its validation.
To benefit from it, Voice Payment Card users have to install an app on their mobile phone, which is uniquely associated with their card. Each time users make a payment; the app vocalises the amount of the transaction before letting users validate it with their secret code.
The Thales Voice Payment Card works as a connected device that gets the amount from the point of sales terminal and communicates it to the app via Bluetooth. The customer can then hear the information either through the phone’s speaker or through earphones.
First revealed in September, the technology has already been certified by Visa and Mastercard. This solution will be commercialised soon by several banks. The aim is to bring autonomy and convenience to visually impaired people by protecting them against fraud or mistakes made at shops.
Global
Thales has also launched a new multimodal biometric solution that simplifies authorities’ processes and user experiences at borders.
Integrating iris and face recognition, the biometric ‘pod’ offers a multimodal biometric capture and authentication solution, to both enrol and verify travellers ID. Thales says the combination of iris and face capture and recognition capacities enables a fast and secure enrolment and ID verification at borders.
For years, biometrics has been used by authorities to simplify traveller experiences at borders, speeding up people enrolment and ID checks such as the eGates or Entry-Exit Systems. With the Thales multimodal biometric pod, the company says borders authorities can integrate automation into their processes, without compromising on passenger and employee security or on the confidentiality of the data exchanged as the solution offers ‘security and privacy by design’ parameters.
Global
In that vein, the International Air Transport Association (IATA ) has developed new industry standards to bring the ‘Ready to Fly ’ option for passengers at airports closer to reality.
IATA’s new ‘Recommended Practice on Digitalization of Admissibility’ will allow passengers to digitally prove their admissibility to an international destination without stopping at the check-in desk or boarding gate for document checks.
As part of the One ID initiative, air carriers are working with IATA to digitalise the passenger experience at airports using contactless biometric-enabled processes.
The new standard will help in the realisation of One ID through a system that will allow passengers to digitally obtain all necessary pre-travel authorisations directly from governments before their trip.
Travellers can avoid on-airport document checks by sharing their ‘OK to Fly’ status with their airline company.
Going forward, they will be able to create a verified digital identity using their airline app on their smartphone and later send their digital identity as proof of all required documentation to destination authorities in advance.
Passengers will then receive a digital ‘approval of admissibility’ in their digital identity/passport app, which can be shared with their airline company.
United Kingdom
Risk-management firm Thirdfort has won certification from the government for its ID verification service.
More than 850 businesses are already using the platform, which includes anti-money laundering (AML) and source-of-funds (SoF) checks.
It has now certified by the government’s UK Digital Identity & Attributes Trust Framework (DIATF), joining other providers such as Docusign and Yoti.
Global
The digital identities of five million people are for sale on so-called “bot markets” on the dark web. The stolen data appears to include digital fingerprints, auto-fill forms and user logins. The worst affected country is India, where 600,000 citizens appear to have had their details pilfered.
The data identified in a new report from VPN provider NordVPN includes cookies, logins, webcam screenshots and digital fingerprints. It is estimated in the report that 12% of all the data on the bot markets is Indian. The average price of a single digital identity of an Indian is 490 Indian Rupees, or £4.87.
India / Sri Lanka
The Indo-Sri Lanka Joint Project Monitoring Committee (JPMC) for the Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity Project (SL-UDI) has decided to begin the procurement process right away.
The Joint Committee met for the second time as an extension of the MoU signed between Sri Lanka and India on March 28. The primary goal was to identify a suitable supplier or group of organisations to install the technology in the country.
The Indian Government is overseeing the software development for the SL-UDI. It has agreed to contribute three billion Indian rupees to this cause.
The Digital National Identity Card to be introduced by the Department of Registration of Persons will reportedly take a new look with the Sri Lanka Unique Digital Identity Project.
Switzerland
UBS, the largest private bank in the world, has chosen iProov to enable “a fully digital banking experience.” Using iProov’s biometric verification technology, UBS customers can now reportedly open an account online in minutes from anywhere.
UBS is now the first bank in Switzerland to offer this process for account opening in combination with qualified electronic signatures. The move delivers a number of benefits for users, says iProov, including convenience, inclusivity, and security.
