Identity, Security, Payments, Biometrics, Smart Cards and Authentication News

DHS looking for biometric solution at land borders

Thursday, May 22, 2008

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has issued a Request for Information for its US-VISIT Biometric Land Exit Solution. US-VISIT program officials are seeking information to help implement a program to collect biographic and biometric information from travelers when they exit the country by land.

Respondents are asked to identify potential technologies, devices and procedures that could provide a biometrically verified data collection system for any or all of the 167 land ports of entry. Responses are due by July 16. US-VISIT officials plan to hold an industry briefing on June 30 to discuss the solicitation. DHS plans on issuing a request for proposals in January 2009 but there is no guarantee of a contract resulting from the RFI. [end] 

Morpho announced that Australia’s Customs and Border Protection Service signed a five year agreement for service of the SmartGate automated biometric security checkpoint solution.

The SmartGate technology operates in real-time utilizing facial recognition hardware that compares the captured data of a traveler to the data contained on the chip embedded on his e-passport. Australian Customs and Border Protection Service says that implementation of Morpho’s solution has proven to be a successful way for Australian Border Protection agents to cope with growing traveler numbers while improving traveler experience at borders and maintaining the high-levels of security they demand.  

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The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service have deployed HID Global RFID technology as an element of Relegen’s asset intelligence solution - assetDNA - as part of its national arms inventory management system.

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The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency is working together with Unisys Corp. on a Land Border Integration (LBI) project to deploy one of the first pedestrian border crossings in El Paso, Texas.

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Privacy advocates in Canada have been raising concerns over the risk involved in two new biometric programs from the government that result in the sharing of private biometric data with other countries’ governments and possibly private corporations, according to an Embassy Magazine article.

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As part of the U.S. Department of State’s initiative to simplify and streamline customer service interactions and processes, the Office of Passport Services has started a 90-day pilot program for online passport card applications.

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Lumidigm announced a partnership with Tiger IT Bangladesh Limited to bring a criminal identity solution that utilizes iris recognition and will also offer fingerprint recognition sensors from Lumidigm.

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