November 2012

Pakistan, pensions

Pakistan moves toward biometric verification of pensioners

Pensioners woes to end thru Biometrics Smart Card: NADRA (Pakistan Observer)

Islamabad—National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) on Thursday claimed that it has developed a mechanism to issue Biometrics Smart Cards to facilitate pensioners. The programme would help the pensioners to withdraw their pension from any biometrics enabled platform used by banks, post offices and any other alternative channels. All the technology components are fully developed by NADRA, tested and ready for deployment.

Australia, Defense, integration, intelligence, military, US

Australia to test drive ABIS developed for US by Northrop Grumman

Australia to test biometric system (UPI)

Australia’s Defense Department has received a trial proof of concept for an automated biometric information system from Northrop Grumman.

The proof of concept, modeled after the U.S. Department of Defense Automated Biometric Identification System, will be used to produce biometrically enabled intelligence.

health, India

Asha uses biometrics to fight tuberculosis in India

Excellent Idea of the Day: TB Tracker Halts Disease’s Spread (MSNBC)

Biometric systems are used to track people. A researcher from Microsoft is showing they can also help keep tabs on the spread of tuberculosis, and even stop it.

Partnered with the non-profit Project Asha, Bill Thies, who works at Microsoft Research India, developed a way to use a simple fingerprint reader and a netbook to track tuberculosis patients in India.

This may sound big brother-ish, but it’s important to make sure TB patients return to local clinics to get their medications. TB is relatively easy to treat and cure, with a standard course of antibiotics. But many patients don’t keep taking the drugs because they feel better. “The challenge is to make sure they finish the course of treatment,” Thies told Discovery News.

Read the whole thing. Tuberculosis is a scourge that is preventable but tenacious.

The Asha web site is here
Twitter: @AshaSociety

ID, passport, Ukraine

UPDATE… Ukraine: New passport law, no fingerprint for now

ORIGINALLY POSTED 29 NOVEMBER 2012. UPDATED & BUMPED.

Yanukovych signs law on biometric passports (Kyiv Post)

The document foresees the introduction of electronic passports containing electronic chips with biometric information for traveling abroad, according to standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

According to the law, the passports of Ukrainian citizens will be produced in the form of cards with contactless smart chips and issued no later than 30 calendar days from the date of the submission of a relevant application. The electronic passports will include the name of the state, the name of the document, the full name of the holder, the holder’s gender, citizenship, date of birth, and a unique number in the register, the number of the document, the date of the document’s expiry, the date of issue of the document, the name of the agency that issued the document, the place of birth, a photo and the signature of the holder.

I was going to write the post title as “Ukraine: New passport law, no biometrics for now,” but ID photos are biometrics.

UPDATE:
This press release says that the Ukraine passport will, in fact, contain fingerprints. It states, in part:

Ukraine approved the introduction of electronic IDs and creation of the state demographic register in the country. The relevant law, signed today by President Yanukovych, will take effect on January 1st, 2013. It stipulates the introduction of the documents for traveling abroad that have a built-in proximity chip with registry information on the holder. The IDs will comply with the standards recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

It will take 30 days to produce such an ID, which will hold information about name, sex, citizenship, birth date and place of residence of a person, their photo, signature, and additional biometric data, as well as issue and expiration dates. The law clarifies that digitalized signature and photograph of a person’s face constitute main biometric data, while digitalized fingerprints are additional biometric data. [emphasis mine]

Aside from buttressing the point made above about that face photos are biometrics, the release strongly hints that fingerprint biometrics will be a part of the new passport. If that’s the case, the fact was omitted from yesterday’s Kyiv Post piece. Perhaps the press release contains enough ambuguity to interpret both pieces as accurate.

We’ll keep an eye out for new information.

agriculture, ID, immigration, US

Farm Bureau working group suggests biometric Ag Card for migrant workers

Would an ‘ag card’ labor proposal work for agriculture? (Western Farm Press)

To help alleviate labor shortages in U.S. agriculture, an American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) working group has proposed work authorization for “a limited population of key workers that have agricultural experience and will continue to work in agriculture to remain in status on what we call an ‘ag card,’” says Kristi Boswell, AFBF director of congressional relations.

The card would be biometric and carried by migrant laborers to prove work authorization.

consent, Europe, Ireland, privacy, Privacy Commissioner, proportionality, US

Irish privacy commissioner’s report

It’s mostly inspired by the Facebook photo tagging affair but it deals with privacy issues and biometrics in a holistic way.

Ireland: Preserving Privacy In The Age Of Biometrics (mondaq)

The Office of the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (‘ODPC’) recently published its audit report regarding Facebook. The audit was undertaken to determine whether Facebook had implemented recommendations stemming from the ODPC’s first audit in 2011. While the audit was largely positive in its findings, the photo tagging feature introduced by Facebook, ‘tag suggestion’, was deemed by the ODPC to be a step too far for compliance with European data protection rules. This tool used cutting-edge facial recognition technology to automatically suggest the matching of names and pictures, i.e. upon the Facebook user uploading a photo, ‘tag suggestion’ would prompt the names of the individuals appearing in such image.

Consent, contract and transparency are all discussed in some detail at the link and we’ve discussed those topics philosophically on this blog in the past. There is also an analysis of proportionality in the linked article. Proportionality is a concept seen a lot in discussions of privacy issues involving European government institutions. It’s not a big part of privacy discussions in the United States.

In Europe, governments seem to feel freer to proactively inject themselves into arrangements between private entities than do governments in the United States. The recent French decision re biometrics for time-and-attendance is a good example of the invocation of proportionality to regulate the behavior of private entities.

In the United States, negligence, liability and torts seem to fill some of the roles proportionality plays in Europe. Since the legal system in the United States generally holds that one cannot consent to another party’s negligence, negligent parties are exposed to civil suits in the event that a data breach harmful to individuals occurs.

In general, it seems that the European approach is more proactive and government driven while the approach in the United States is more reactive and driven by private interests.

finger, medical

Fingerprint pot-dispensing machines big news in Massachusetts

A secure stop for pot? (MetroWest Daily News)

After voters this month legalized medical marijuana, an Arizona businessman is opening an office in Natick, hoping his biometric dispensing system becomes the standard used in Bay State dispensaries.

Bruce Bedrick, CEO of consulting firm Kind Clinics LLC and manufacturer Medbox Inc., said it prevents people from obtaining marijuana fraudulently.

Medbox was also in the news lately when investors looking to cash in on medical marijuana referendums in the United States drove Medbox shares from $3.14 per share before the election to $215.00 per share on November 15.

Click here for a current quote.

elections, Ghana, vote, voter

Civil group publishes report on Ghana biometric voter registration

Coalition of Domestic Election Observers (CODEO) final Statement nationwide Biometric Voter Registration exercise (Citifm Online)

The goal of CODEO’s BVR observation was to promote a credible voter registration in Ghana, which is accurate and will contribute to peaceful election outcomes. With the generous assistance from the United Kingdom Department of International Development (DfID):

CODEO recruited, trained and deployed a total of 650 of its members to observe the entire BVR registration exercise. This observation covered a random sample of 600 registration centers drawn from 300 Electoral Areas in 100 districts in all 10 regions of Ghana. In order to obtain a nationally representative sample, key consideration was given to the total number of registration centers in each of the 10 Regions in the country and the same was repeated at the regional, district and electoral area levels. This allowed CODEO to obtain a true picture of the BVR exercise nationwide over the four phases of the exercise.

Their findings are likely of interest to others contemplating very large scale identity management deployments.

Health Care, palm vein, schools, vascular

We just love it. No one wants to go back.

Palm scanners get thumbs up in schools, hospitals (USA Today)

Palm-scanning technology is popping up nationwide as a bona fide biometric tracker of identities, and it appears poised to make the jump from schools and hospitals to other sectors of the economy including ATM usage and retail. It also has applications as a secure identifier for cloud computing.

Here’s how it works: Using the same near-infrared technology that comes in a TV remote control or Nintendo Wii video game, the device takes a super high-resolution infrared photograph of the vein pattern just below a person’s skin. That image, between 1.5 and 2.5 square inches, is recorded and digitized.

It’s not hard to see why palm vein scanners are attractive in many applications. Users don’t have to touch anything, they’re fast, and the biometric is more difficult than some others to spoof.

Indiana, law enforcement, Michigan

Biometrics & the Michigan State Police

New technologies help police ID suspected crooks (South Bend Tribune)

11/2-year-old Biometrics and Identification Division of the State Police makes Michigan the first state to have a separate office working on criminal justice biometrics.
…
“Criminals are known for being untruthful, and they have a motive to hide their identity. So it’s up to law enforcement to find out who they really are and find out if they may be wanted for other crimes in other places across the state or the country,” he said.

elections, Sierra Leone

Early reports on Sierra Leone elections are cautiously optimistic ahead of results

WASHINGTON POST: Sierra Leone carried out a largely peaceful and well-conducted vote despite isolated reports of money changing hands and polling stations marred by bees and lack of light, observers said Monday.

AFP: Sierra Leone’s election received kudos from observers Monday for being peaceful and well-organised, but concerns spiked over potential violence around results as the opposition alleged poll fraud.

Africa, elections, enrollment, Sierra Leone, vote, voter

Sierra Leone votes today

Can tech revolutionize African elections? (CNN)
by Jonathan Bhalla at Africa Research Institute

An often overlooked aspect of the current electoral cycle in Sierra Leone is the use of biometric technology to capture thumb prints and facial features in the registration of voters.

“Credible elections start with credible voter registration,” remarked Christiana Thorpe, chief commissioner of Sierra Leone’s National Electoral Commission, during a presentation at Africa Research Institute in London in July 2011. For Thorpe, a bloated or inaccurate voter register always has a negative effect on the electoral process.

Read the whole thing.

banking, development, Namibia, Postal Service

Biometrics enable micro-lending in Namibia

Namibia: Another Step Forward for Access to Banking (All Africa)

In terms of the agreement, PostFin will use the DBN credit line to finance small businesses, housing and education.

The micro-lending agreement builds on the existing relationship between NamPost and DBN. NamPost previously used DBN finance to implement electronic banking with biometric account management, which has substantially improved access to banking in Namibia, particularly in smaller centres and hard to access areas.

Read on and you’ll also learn that in Namibia, like in other countries, the postal service is getting in on the ID business.

Click the ‘Postal Service’ label below for more examples.

audit, children, elections, Ghana, ID, voter

At least the kids can’t vote twice – Ghana edition

Minors Captured In Biometric Voter Register A Big Challenge For EC – Dr Afari-Gyan (Ghana.gov)

He said the biometric verification machine cannot determine who is a minor or a foreigner and that examination of images of those captured during the biometric registration shows that minors were registered all over the country.

This brings up several ID issues.

Since there is no precise physiological indication of age, it is important to register children when they are born.

Some non-trivial proportion of the world’s individuals don’t actually know how old they are.

What policies were in place during the voter registration process?

It’s almost impossible to conceive that the enrollment software didn’t in some way note the electoral worker responsible for each enrollment. Is there any correlation between the registrants that seem obviously to be around twelve years old and the worker responsible for the registration?

On the positive side, with a well-functioning biometric voter system at least the kids can’t vote twice.

See:
At Least the Kids Can’t Vote Twice in ARMM, Philippines
Biometrics “Fix” Identity