Welcome to FindBiometrics’ digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:

Norway’s Consumer Council is asking the Norwegian government to ban the use of biometrics in public spaces, in response to a government-mandated Privacy Commission report. Drawing from the report’s 140 suggestions, the Consumer Council focuses on six key issues, with the use of biometrics in marketing being one of them; others include private sector monopolies and the need for stronger enforcement of the European Union’s privacy rules.

Academics at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) have drafted an outline of a model law regulating facial recognition technology, and are calling on Australian Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus “to lead a national facial recognition reform process” based on their model. The work was led by Professor Edward Santow, the country’s former Human Rights Commissioner, and Professor Nicholas Davis, a former member of the World Economic Forum’s executive committee, with help from the Institute’s Lauren Perry. The professors, who co-direct the UTS Human Technology Institute, advocate for a risk-based model governing the development and deployment of facial recognition technology.

Liberia’s National Elections Commission has agreed to re-evaluate vendors’ bids for the country’s biometric voter registration project. The initial run had drawn suspicion when Ekemp, a China-based vendor, placed the Commission’s logo on a list of clients before the evaluation process had formally concluded. The National Elections Commission then got into something of a dispute with the Public Procurement and Concession Committee over the latter’s refusal to verify its selection of Ekemp in a consortium that also included Liberia’s Palm Insurance and Nigeria’s INITS.

The Star Entertainment Group is scrambling to implement a number of corporate changes, including the installation of additional facial recognition cameras, in a desperate effort to keep its operating license for its flagship Sydney casino. The operator has been under intense scrutiny from the NSW Independent Casino Commission over corporate governance and culture issues, and is now attempting an ambitious overhaul, which includes increasing the number of on-site facial recognition cameras from 55 to 70, in an effort to identify problem gamblers.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Minister of Finance, Colm Imbert, says that the country’s police forces will receive biometric systems for use in the field, reports Newsday. The revelation came during a presentation to Parliament concerning the 2022-2023 fiscal budget, which includes a higher national security budget than the previous year’s. Minister Imbert explained that biometric technology will be used to ensure that “[i]dentifications will be quickly processed and be made available in real-time to officers while mobile,” characterizing the effort as an ongoing “body and vehicle camera project”.

Pangiam and CLEAR, two major names in air travel biometrics, are involved in a pilot program at Miami International Airport that lets American Airlines travelers schedule a time for TSA checkpoint screening. Dubbed “MIA Reserve”, it’s a six-month pilot that is aimed at further reducing checkpoint wait times. While biometrics do not appear to play a role in the MIA Reserve screening process, the involvement of Pangiam and CLEAR suggests a potential role for the technology in the future, especially given that MIA is about to launch a biometric boarding system next month.

FindBiometrics will host its Financial Biometrics Virtual Identity Summit tomorrow, starting at 11am Eastern. The full-day virtual event will feature a number of prominent speakers and participants, including Money20/20 Editor in Chief Sanjib Kalita, Acuity Market Intelligence Principal Maxine Most, Frost & Sullivan Security Industry Analyst Danielle VanZandt, and Mastercard’s Head of Authentication Solutions, Nili Klenoff. Registration for the event is free, and still open.

Twenty20 Solutions has announced a new security solution designed to more accurately detect, track, and even identity active shooters. The company is pitching its “Active Shooter Location Identification” system as a more powerful solution than traditional gunshot detection systems, explaining in a statement that its acoustic detection technology “works in tandem with video surveillance to identify shooters, distinguish between long guns and handguns, identify getaway vehicles, and potentially match a shooter to an identity via facial recognition”.

1Kosmos has been selected as one of this year’s SINET16 Innovators. Running since 2011, the SINET Awards program is aimed at highlighting promising cybersecurity startups. 1Kosmos, whose BlockID platform uses facial recognition to match end users’ selfies to their official identity documents, is one of 16 startups selected from a pool of 194 applications. SINET Chairman Robert D. Rodriguez said that the company “is delivering important security advancements towards the protection of corporations who are the fabric of our nation’s critical infrastructures and national security and economic interests.”

A maker of employee COVID screening kiosks has become the latest company to face a lawsuit under Illinois’s Biometric Information Privacy Act. The lawsuit has been brought by a cake decorator employed by a Chicago-based supermarket chain, who alleges that Turing Video Inc. violated BIPA by collecting and storing her face biometrics as part of the Turing Shield kiosk’s screening process.

The candy company Mars has launched a bizarre marketing campaign in partnership with Mycube Safe, a consumer safe box company, and TikTok influencer Tefi Pessoa. The company is inviting consumers to enter a contest to win a pink safe – for storing pink Starburst candies – that can only be accessed with a fingerprint scan. In its announcement, the company explained that the project builds on “the consumer-generated ‘You Are A Pink STARBURST’ self-love mantra,” and that with its All Pink “Un-Share” Packs, Starburst “is celebrating a ‘me-first’ mentality”.

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