United States
An audit by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found the technology behind facial recognition systems is racing ahead of federal oversight, raising concerns about privacy, accuracy, and tenant rights.
GAO auditors concluded that while the systems may reduce trespassing and crime, they also pose risks of discriminatory errors and unchecked surveillance. They faulted the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for offering only vague guidance to the nation’s more than 3,300 public housing agencies, leaving officials uncertain about what rules apply.
GAO found that property owners and housing agencies see real security benefits in facial recognition. However, GAO emphasized that the very same systems present troubling risks. Civil liberties groups warned that biometric data collection in housing environments carries an inherent danger, saying that once stored, facial images can be misused, shared with law enforcement without consent, or retained long after a tenant has moved out.
Prior GAO audits documented that commercial facial recognition systems misidentify women and people of colour at higher rates than white men, reports Biometric Update.
United Kingdom
Supermarkets across the UK are set to accept a new digital version of the UK driving licence for age verification and identity checks.
The digital licences, scheduled for introduction by the government in 2025, will allow shoppers to confirm their age for restricted goods such as alcohol and act as a form of identification in selected situations.
Retailers including Tesco, Asda, and Morrisons have already trialled digital age verification at self-service checkouts and expressed support for the wider rollout.
The Association of Convenience Stores has also indicated that digital licences could streamline age checks and reduce the administrative burden on staff.
United Kingdom / Estonia
The UK is “behind the curve” and should follow the example of Estonia when it comes to digital identity, according to Pat McFadden, chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and government minister for Intergovernmental relations.
McFadden was on an official visit to Estonia, where 90 percent of citizens use their national electronic identity to access government services.
“We’ve already got good synchronicity between the passport and the driving licence system. So we’ve built some of this already. But I definitely think we’re going to have to move on and innovate more from where we are at the moment,” McFadden told The Times.
Europe
Procivis is participating as a beneficiary partner in the EU digital identity wallet consortium WE BUILD.
WE BUILD (Wallet Ecosystem Building in Large-scale Deployments) is a new, second-round large-scale pilot (LSP) from the EU. It focuses on the wallet ecosystem for business and payments use cases in the EU. It brings together nearly 200 organisations across Europe from the public and private sectors to test and deploy real-life use cases for the European Digital Identity Wallet (EUDI Wallet) and business wallets, helping accelerate adoption and ensure interoperability.
The initiative will run for 24 months under the leadership of Dutch and Swedish government authorities (Ministry of Economic Affairs-Netherlands, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce-KVK, and Bolagsverket-Sweden).
Thirteen use cases will focus on payments and businesses, exploring cross-border payment, instant payments and account-to-account transfers. As a beneficiary partner, Procivis participates in three of the thirteen use cases covering wallets for business as well as payment uses cases.
Laos
Laos will begin issuing national digital ID cards across the country next month, replacing its paper-based system.
Beyond domestic identification, the digital ID card is designed for both domestic and international travel and promises to cut administrative time and costs. The new Laos digital ID card is designed to international standards and features a durable polycarbonate body with an embedded chip for biometric data, QR code, and barcode.
Switzerland
The Council of the Swiss Abroad has passed a resolution in favour of the new Electronic Identity Act, which will be put to the vote later this month.
According to the Council, creating a state digital identity is crucial to developing digital government and easing political participation, such as electronic voting and adding digital signatures for initiatives and referendums, reports Swiss Info.
A revised digital identity law is set for a national vote on September 28, following the rejection of an earlier proposal in 2021. That initial version faced criticism for granting excessive control to private companies, which would issue the electronic proof of identity. The new bill places the system entirely under public management, to be issued by federal authorities, and data stored in a decentralised method.
If the digital ID is accepted by voters, it will be introduced in the third quarter of 2026 at the earliest.
United States
1Kosmos has been named as a Full-Service Credential Service Provider (CSP) under the General Services Administrations (GSAs) newly established Special Item Number (SIN 541519CSP). The company’s inclusion was secured in collaboration with Carahsoft Technology Corp. The inclusion marks “a significant milestone in expanding the accessibility of secure, NIST-aligned digital identity services for Federal agencies,” said the company.
SIN 541519CSP is a newly created category under the GSA Schedule to streamline how Federal agencies procure digital credentialing services. The SIN identifies pre-vetted vendors that meet technical, privacy and operational requirements derived from NIST SP 800-63. This includes full-service Credential Service Providers (CSP)s that deliver end-to-end enrolment, identity verification, authentication, credential lifecycle management and component-service providers.
