• European Court: Scottish DNA database system is "fairer and proportionate"

    the European Court of Human Rights ruled the DNA databases in Britain, Wales, and Northern Ireland “could not be regarded as necessary in a democratic society”; the European Court considered the system in Scotland “fair and proportionate”

  • Republican oppose Safran's FBI contract

    Republicans legislators express opposition to the FBI awarding a large biometric contract to French company Safran; the company is partly owned by the French government

  • ID scheme looks at gaining access

    Australia’s Centrelink agency has around 26,000 employees and administered more than $70 billion in payments and services to millions of customers annually; the agency has just developed a a more reliable ID authentication solution

  • Growing problem: Private security companies pose risk to privacy

    Government mandates in the U.K. now require more and more businesses to collect more and more information about individuals who use these businesses’ services; private contractors are hired to handled the collection and handling of the personal information collected; these contractors are not bound by the tight rules governing the government handling of such information (not that the U.K. government is doing a very good job following these rules)

  • South Africa: Intelleca awarded voice biometrics contract

    South African leading network operator awards Intelleca large voice recognition contract; the operator plans to implement the solution across a range of business areas in its contact center

  • In the U.K., CCTVs replace security guards

    Newcastle-based U.K. Biometric sees 10-fold increase for its CCTV cameras which can be accessed via remote devices; company says building firms are turning to the technology as a cheaper and more efficient replacement to employing overnight security guards

  • $250 million TWIC port security project hobbled by lack of biometric readers

    What is the use of issuing more than 1 million biometric IDs to truckers, deckhands, and others requiring access to secure areas at sea ports — if there are no reliable biometric readers at the ports to read these cards? Post security project suffers

  • Digital security companies eye emerging e-health care market

    Gemalto joins SAFE-BioPharma Association; company said it will contribute its expertise in smart card-based solutions for authentication, network security, and digital signature — all essential elements of creating electronic health care business environment by 2012

  • Economic slowdown increases Americans' fears about fraud, ID theft

    The latest Unisys Security Index shows Americans more worried about identity theft as a result of the economic slowdown; financial security fears spike and now rank as #1 concern; national security concerns are all-time low

  • U.K. border security agency to exchange fingerprints with U.S. and others

    U.K. Border Agency (UKBA) said that by December 2008 it had enrolled more than 3.6 million sets of fingerprints from visa applicants, finding more than 5,200 cases of identity swaps; the agency now wants to exchange fingerprint information with the United States, Canada, and Australia

  • The purpose of fingerprints

    All wrinkles on our bodies are the result of bending and stretching of the skin — except fingerprints, which are not the result of repeated motion; scientists speculate that fingerprints are there to enhance tactile sensation — although science cannot yet come up with the reason why all of us have a unique set of prints

  • Manchester airport recalibrate facial recognition machines to shorten lines

    Five facial recognition machines at Manchester airport produced many false negatives, causing long lines of irate passengers; to shorten lines, the machines’ sensitivity was recalibrated from 80 percent to 30 percent; experts say the machines are now useless: tests show that at 30 percent, the machines cannot distinguish between Gordon Brown and Mel Gibson — or between Osama bin Laden and actress Winona Ryder

  • U.K. Foreign Office in biometrics spending spree

    Foreign and Commonwealth Office earmarks £15 million in biometric gear for embassy security systems

  • TSA's Cleared List reaches 80,000

    TSA’s Cleared List — that is, a list of people who found their names on the Terrorist Watch List and who successfully appealed to have their named removed from that list — has reached 80,000; critics of the Watch List say this proves that it is just too easy to have a name added to the Watch List

  • Sagem Sécurité, Hitachi combine fingerprint and vein recognition technologies

    Two leaders in biometric technologies combine their respective technologies — finger prints and vein architecture — in a multimode biometric recognition module