According to Grand View Research, the global identity verification market size was valued at $8.48 billion in 2021 and is expected to expand at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.7% from 2022 to 2030. Growing frequencies of identity fraud and cybercrime increased digitization initiatives, and the increasing use case of data security across verticals propels the market forward which might explain the massive inflow of investment in this sector.
Vast Investments Are Flooding Into Biometrics For Identity Verification And ID Documents
An example US-based startup ID.me has just recently raised $100 Million in the industry’s most recent substantial funding round at a valuation of $1.5 Billion.
ID.me has revealed its biometrics funding round took place quietly amidst controversy. The company announced the $132 million investment along with the appointment of a new CFO to ensure the money is managed carefully. This sizeable figure reflects ID.me’s impressive growth during the pandemic, which called for a rapid increase in staff numbers.
Another firm, Gataca, a digital identity and authentication platform providing users with a secure and convenient way to manage their online identities, will participate in the EU Digital ID Wallet large scale pilot program.
Switzerland
Switzerland has allocated 24.61 million Swiss francs (roughly US$27.18 million) for the deployment of a new multi-modal Automatic Fingerprint Matching System (AFIS) featuring biometric facial image matching alongside fingerprint and palm print matching systems, in line with the nation’s restrictions on facial recognition.
United Kingdom
The UK National Physical Laboratory, along with London and South Wales police, have determined that operator initiated, retrospective and live facial recognition can help to reduce crime without violating human rights.
A joint simulated service analysis conducted by NEC’s Neoface revealed a false match rate of 1 in 6,000 with a database of 10,000 face templates, and a true positive identification rate of 89% when the threshold setting was set to 0.6 for Live Facial Recognition (LFR).
India
India’s Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has partnered with an academic institution, IIT Bombay, to create a software for contactless fingerprint scanning on mobile phones. An MoU was signed between the two parties to develop technology to capture biometrics and verify multiple fingers at once, which will be integrated with Aadhaar.
Bulgaria
In a press statement from January 6, 2023, the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior announced the upcoming release of their redesigned Identity Card. In December 2022, the MoI signed a 10-year contract with German technology expert Mühlbauer ID Services GmbH and S&T to upgrade the country’s Identity System.
The project will involve the establishment of a Centralized Personalization Centre and updating the Public Enrollment Center in Sofia, connecting them to the MOI and police. The new ID Card is expected to be available by mid 2024. Old cards will still be accepted until expiry while new ones can already be used for international travel.
Africa
Zimbabwe is on a mission to simplify the process of birth registration and issuing passports and ID cards. The government has announced plans to digitalize government services and is aiming to have the system up and running by the end of 2023. The Ministry of Health has been assigned to transfer all birth records to the country’s civil registry.
Europe
Financial institutions in Europe are recommending that the planned European Union Digital ID exclude payments, so that the EU Digital Identity Wallet can focus on other application areas. This would make the project much simpler for the financial sector, according to a group of trade organizations.
To examine the effectiveness of the EU Digital Identity Wallet, Atos, Gataca (a decentralized digital ID startup), public agencies, and academic institutions have joined forces in the DC4EU consortium to conduct a $21 million program, which will involve trials of the framework for Electronic Attestations of Attributes, Quality eID Assurance and sharing educational and professional credentials.
Meanwhile, IdentityNORTH recently discussed Canada’s progress towards decentralized digital identity as a foundation for the digital economy, and an Okta white paper looked into public service delivery in Australia to demonstrate why governments around the world should be utilizing ‘citizen identity platforms’ from the cloud.
The role of America’s DMVs as de facto identity authorities, and how mDLs are changing it, was the topic of a webinar featuring Arizona Department of Transportation’s Eric Jorgensen, hosted by iProov’s Ajay Amlani.
The agencies are attempting to address their long-standing reputation for slow service and a lack of resources by utilizing biometrics. Tech5 Chairman Rahul Parthe discussed the company’s vision of combining DIDs with biometrics to give people control over their data privacy while simultaneously providing the level of assurance required to prevent fraud at an EAB event.
The Path Ahead
Cryptographic technology allows for the issuance of digital wallets that are more cost-efficient than smartcards, and are W3C-compliant with decentralized verification. Mitek has compiled 79 statistics to illustrate the importance of identity verification today and why it will become even more essential in the years to come. Analysts have determined that trust in biometrics to prevent fraud and data breaches is increasing and authentication practices are changing, leading to more deployments other trust issues still remain.
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