Biometrics enrollment and Big Brother fears loom: is the post office the answer?
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Biometrics hold stunning potential for establishing trust and enabling inclusion for people living outside of bureaucratic systems, but these goals can clash. A possible solution for national ID systems emerges from some of the week’s top articles on Biometric Update.
The role of the post office in an era of digital government may be delivering trust, in the form of biometric binding for digital credentials. Governments and online platforms around the world are running up huge trust deficits, but perhaps one of the more reliable public institutions, possibly rebranded as the “trust office,” can provide some of the basic assurances necessary.
Feedzai’s impressive funding round shows the confidence investors have in the latest fraud prevention technologies once people are interacting with digital financial services.
Public opinion divide
The UK government’s mandatory digital ID plan has left digital identity providers certified under the DIATF wondering if they have wasted effort and money only to be undercut. PM Kier Starmer’s proposal aligns with suggestions from former Labour PM Tony Blair’s eponymous institute, which counts an American Big Tech mogul among its major doners, and is facing immediate resistance in Ireland and Scotland. DSIT has promised a consultation, but offered little detail on the plan so far.
Switzerland is also divided over digital ID, with 50.4 percent appro