IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

To trick fraudsters, the Home Office has introduced three circular arcs on the card - just beneath the identity photos - where you will find the name of the country in the official languages spoken in Belgium - French, Dutch and German, as well as in English. But instead of 'Belgien' in German, the ID card incorrectly uses the name 'Belgine' and instead of 'Belgium' in English, the card reads 'Belguim'. Vanneste has promised other errors will be printed on the card to "further confuse fraudsters". With any luck, these will not be revealed.

Ministers grappling with the technical and political problems of electronic identity cards are looking with interest at the experience of a close continental neighbour. The government of Belgium expects to be the first to issue multipurpose national chip cards to all citizens and residents.

Singapore’s Government has announced the five Smart Nation projects that would offer biometric identification for a safe system.

The features of the project include a national digital identity that underpins the development of a safe and secure society, an e-citizen service called Moments of Life (Families), online payments, a sensor network, and smart urban mobility.

The University hopes its work will improve the quality of life for some of India’s most disadvantaged and marginalised citizens by “giving the poor an identity.”

In 2011, the Indian government launched a programme to collect the iris patterns and fingerprints of all of its 1.2 billion citizens within three years.

The decision to introduce fingerprints in passports was made by the European Union as part of their war against terrorism, human trafficking and trade, illegal immigration and other transnational crimes.

The new biometric passport will allow Danish citizens to travel to countries which may demand this type of passport for entry in the future.

The rumour mill around Apple's California headquarters is spinning mighty fast. Word has it that the Silicon Valley tech giant is cooking up a new, market-smashing product to rival the iPod, iPhone and iPad. The smart money is on something to do with biometrics, very possibly an iWatch.

The new system, which is built on the IOM Border Management Information System and customised to Tanzanian needs, will allow the immigration department to capture biometric samples from applicants and to register applicants’ data in an electronic database.

Whatever you opinion, the program began in Israel on Monday morning, Rosh Chodesh Menachem Av 5773. Despite many objections, biometric ID cards (teudat zehut) are being offered in Ashdod and Rishon L’Tzion, chosen as the test cities for the project. The project will expand to other cities in the future. During the two-year test program, citizens may opt for the new biometric option or remain with the standard identification cards used today. The biometric cards will be issued free of charge.

People who grew up in Britain in the 1960s will remember a television program that built a cult following: "The Prisoner." It was about an oddly luxurious detention camp - a kind of Guantanamo Bay by Four Seasons, spa services and brainwashing included. Even if you wanted to, trying to escape was pointless. A big balloon would chase you and bring you back. The residents didn’t have names, just numbers. The show’s tagline was: "I am not a number. I am a free man."

In a move that will help expedite the process of solving crime cases, investigation departments of the Royal Oman Police (ROP) in all wilayats will soon be linked through a system of biometrics.

The new project, called 'Yaqeen', aims to reunite all the biometrics in one framework, an ROP official told the Times of Oman. The new system will help in resolving crimes faster as well as in tracking and nabbing culprits, said the official.

According to him, the price of biometric ID card will not exceed 250 soms. “The world practice shows that the cost of a biometric passport reaches €70-80. But we have rather low cost. A 128 kilobytes chip will contain data on iris, fingerprint pattern, electronic signature and a photo. We have inserted larger memory content, because it will be unreasonably to increase it afterwards,” Erlan Saparbayev explained.

Passport photos need to meet more stringent, internationally agreed standards to enable facial recognition technology to work properly. The requirements were agreed by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) in 2003 and will enable the production of new, more secure biometric 'ePassports' as well as the use of facial recognition technology to counter passport fraud and for enhanced checks at international border controls.

The content for the introduction of e-passports was held October 27 to December 10, 2010. Eight foreign companies participated in the contest.

“Getting biometric passports is the right of citizens, not an obligation,” Head of the Passports and Visa Department of RA Police Hovhannes Kocharyan told a press conference today.

The old passports will stay in use, no deadline has been set for their expiration, Kocharyan informed.

The offices would serve the needs of persons in those regions wanting to apply for biometric passports, bringing to an end the era where, would-be applicants had to come all the way to the national capital, Accra, to have their applications processed.

The Minister of Foreign, Alhaji Muhammad Mumuni, who was personally present at the Kumasi inauguration said, given the enormous interest shown by the Ghanaian public since the new system was introduced, they were compelled to speed up the decentralization of the system.

Anticipation for mass market biometric credit and debit cards continues to build, with market conditions aligning and major announcements expected in the second half of the year. Broader adoption of facial recognition also seemed to be a major theme for the week in biometrics news, before the technology’s use by law enforcement in the U.S. hijacked the topic. If the changes announced this week are not accompanied by meaningful policy change, however, they are not likely to significantly impact the market.

Zwipe CEO Andre Løvestam and HSBC Group COO and CTO Ritesh Jain discussed the evolution of payment cards in the context of COVID-19 at a recent Group Futurista online conference. Biometric card prices are dropping rapidly, and with consumers wanting both reduced contact with shared services and more contactless payment security, the conditions for mass market launch seem to be aligning for both supply and demand. Commercialization could even be this year, according to Fingerprint Cards CEO Christian Fredrikson. Speaking during a Corporate Day presentation, Fredrikson said contactless payments growth is accelerating, which was echoed by the Zwipe Chief in a separate presentation for investors.<

The Biometric Registration is geared towards the collation of an accurate data on about 730,000 government CAP 30 pensioners and public sector employees on the Controller and Accountant General’s Department (CAGD) pensioners’ payroll.

This is to help clean, update and eliminate all ghost names from the payroll of pensioners in the country.

The country has been issuing credit card-sized identity documents for foreign nationals since joining the Schengen area on 12 December 2008. As part of its further development of the identity document, biometric data will now be stored in the document.

Governments and institutions alike are increasingly turning to technology to combat and counter the threats posed by sophisticated criminals and terrorists around the world. As the threat perception grows, security agencies are investing in cutting edge technologies to preserve a safe and secure environment.

The use of biometrics as a fool proof means to verify identity in an attempt to weed out criminals with false documents is not a new phenomenon. However, a growing trend has been identified within both governments and the private sector to increasingly harness this powerful tool in order to keep home and corporate environments safe.