The social welfare department has proposed to use biometrics in areas where corruption has affected the beneficiaries of the government's poverty alleviation scheme that provides health and school allowances to poor school children, a senior official said.
Now, inmates of Cherlapally Central Prison can officially talk on telephone to their dear ones as home minister P Sabita Indra Reddy will inaugurate six biometric telephones on the prison premises on Thursday. The long-awaited phones will curb their illegal usage in the prison and help nearly 2,000 inmates get connected to their family members, lawyers and doctors.
CN Gopinatha Reddy, DGP (Prisons), who is going to retire from service on March 31, said the six telephones were installed in six partitioned cabins by Vodafone.
Yesterday, I testified (by remote communications) in the Alaska House of Representatives’ Health and Social Services Committee, which is considering a bill to heavily regulate the collection and use of biometrics. The bill is inspired by a man who was denied entry into the CPA exam when he refused to have his fingerprints scanned for that purpose. You can read more about his campaign at the PrivacyNOWalaska.org site.Read the whole thing. It's short and to the point, and I'd have to lift most of the article to give more of its flavor. It brings together several issues we frequently discuss here (privacy, biometrics, test-taking, regulation, etc.) together with one we don't — requiring a license to practice too many professions.
Most stores are about 10,000 square feet, with annual sales of about $2.3 million. Dollarama has more than 14,000 employees, usually 20 per store, about a third of them part-time. The Dollarama formula relies on paying as little as possible on this front too. Almost all jobs pay the provincial minimum wage—about $8.75. Given its chosen labour niche, this year the company feels compelled to introduce biometric scanners made by Massachusetts-based Kronos Inc. to monitor employee attendance. Unlike a punch clock, these devices can’t be gamed by sympathetic colleagues.
Religious leaders in Cameroon usually don't get involved in electoral politics. But in early March, a group of Muslim and Christian leaders went to see the president of the elections governing body, saying they were fed up with previous balloting that included vote-buying, multiple voting and outright manipulation of vote totals.
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The religious leaders proposed the introduction of biometric registration of voters, the use of a single ballot paper for presidential elections, the introduction of independent candidates, the reduction of the voting age from 20 years to 18 years, and the recompilation of voter registers.
"Designed to search millions of subjects and provide real time positive identification, mobile identification will give law enforcement agencies remote access to the fingerprint collection at TxDPS and will nicely complement the existing access DPS provides to the FBI's Repository of Individuals of Special Concern (RISC)," said Mike Lesko, Deputy Assistant Director of the Law Enforcement Support Division at the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Lesko continued, "Based on national standards and optimized for speed and accuracy, mobile identification can help increase the efficiency of Texas law enforcement by allowing officers to positively identify suspects via fingerprints without having to transport the suspect to a law enforcement station. The efficiency realized by this too can help increase public safety as well as officer safety by providing officers with positive suspect identification and allowing them to act appropriately on that knowledge."
...[A] badly battered, dazed and confused man picked up by the police and transported to Grady Memorial Hospital without any identification on him or means to identify himself other than giving his name. Subsequently, Grady published his photo asking the public for their help to identify the patient, hoping someone may recognize him.More at the link.
I testified a few days ago at a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on REAL ID implementation. I expected to have harsh things to say about the way REAL ID has been treated by the National Governors Association and the Obama administration. And there was certainly plenty to criticize. But what surprised me after a few years away from the issue was not how badly the secure ID problem had been neglected. It was how much progress has been made, almost reluctantly, by all parties. Much more secure identification is now within reach, though politics may still delay the final steps.
Cameras installed in the aircraft's entry area will be able to distinguish between passengers and staff, thus providing an accurate number for who is on the aircraft when the doors close. Conventional technology such as an infrared light ray and photo cell would be unable to differentiate the movement of a person from, for example, a service trolley.This application could also be really helpful for making sure people don't sleep through their flight connections. International flights, especially ones transecting the Pacific Ocean can be really tricky. If you sleep through your connection, you could find yourself on a twelve hour flight to somewhere you don't have a visa to visit. I've seen it happen.
Kammer says it would be possible to use the recognition technology for additional purposes such as directing passengers to their allocated seats. This would require, however, combining the software with a database holding the respective passenger records, for example, from check-in or previous flights.
He noted that because the kit operators were not “well trained” there are some lapses in their work.Biometrics are about people; they can help managers accomplish goals but they can't run an organization all by themselves.
According to him, he has observed that some kit operators keep piling pressure on the printers used for the registration exercise thus leading to their malfunctioning.
“Some of them (kit operators) instead of issuing one command for printing, some of them go to issue two, three, four and eventually the printer gets locked up because of too much information sent” Dr. Gedel said on Multi TV's political talk show, Majority Caucus.
He also raised concerns about the citing of some of the registration centers in the open which he said can affect the lifespan of the equipment.
Back in the late 60’s the United States was able to put a man on the moon.It certainly does seem (regarding biometrics, anyway) that the appetite for huge projects is greater in the developing world than among the developed economies. India, Nigeria and Ghana come to mind as examples of countries attempting large-scale ID deployments.
It was at the same time that the Scandinavian countries implemented their “single citizen view”.
Besides digitalizing the national identification number Sweden also, in 1967, managed to change from driving on the left side of the road to driving on the right side. I’m not sure if Sweden could afford turning to the right side today not to say the United Kingdom doing the same.
The Government last month introduced measures to flush out foreigners and Zimbabweans who have been abusing the country's marriage laws.
Such measures included computerised and serialised marriage certificates to curb multiple marriages, marriages of convenience and immigration fraud.
Foreigners, mostly those from Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, enter into marriages of convenience and marry more than one wife using different names to secure Zimbabwean citizenship or residence permits.
In most marriages of convenience, women are lured with money or property.
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| Photo PRPhotos.com & SecurLinx |
“PIN and password indicates what you know and what you possess,” he said. “They do not tell you who you are and what you are. Who is presenting the tokens? That’s the fundamental problem.”
Hu suggested that biometrics such as fingerprint, face and iris patterns could improve identity detection, especially when used in conjunction with smartcards.
Research groups at ADFA were developing “fuzzy vaults” and “fuzzy extractors” to extract biometric information for use in encryption, he said.
Although attackers have fooled biometric scanners with photos of fingerprint, face or iris patterns in the past, Hu said “multi-modal biometrics” improved reliability by requiring multiple biometric identifiers.
“Liveliness detection” techniques could also determine if patterns belonged to a living person by using two LEDs with peak emissions at 530 and 640nm to detect certain characteristics of live fingers, he said.
"Physical security is the foundation where you start," says John Thielens, chief security officer of Axway, a business-software vendor. "If you can afford it, build a data center. The big guys build their own."Security is provided in layers. This article illustrates it.
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Once inside, visitors encounter a "mantrap" portal, which requires a badge and biometric image of the right index finger to gain access to the data center. The digital image is necessary to pass through a phalanx of shatter-resistant glass doors.
Far from seeing the use of my biometric self as some Orwellian, Big Brother intrusion into the sanctity of my identity – which most people have anyway handed over to a more or less gimmicky variation on the dumber-than-dumb concept of a passcode – I consider it to be an accurate, respectful recognition of who I am and the access privileges and trust that I have earned.In the final analysis, identity management is about people. We say this all the time around here because we believe that it can't be said often enough. Recognizing this truth keeps us focused on the fact that if the systems we design don't work for the people who have to use them, they can't help organizations achieve their goals. If they don't work for everyone, they don't work.
As to those naysayers who seek to undermine the integrity and competency of modern biometrics, I suggest they reflect a little more deeply on the glaringly absurd inadequacies of cards, PINs and passwords – all of which are routinely forgotten, lost, shared and stolen.
Instead of regurgitating a lot of heavily-chewed myths about why biometrics are so flawed, isn't it perhaps time to talk to some of the local vendors that are running biometric-based systems that safely, securely and accurately control physical access for millions, yes millions, of people at thousands of South African companies?
Because these local biometric vendors have created in SA one of the world's largest and most diverse markets for a form of authentication that recognises people for what they are – people.
According to a recent report by RNCOS, the corporate security and identity theft are also fueling growth in the global biometric market, which is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of around 21% during 2012-2014.Frost & Sullivan publicized their report on Wednesday
According to “Biometric Market Forecast to 2014”, the biometric technologies are being widely accepted and adopted in various civil and commercial applications, including Point of Sale, ATMs, and border security (passports and customer ID). Companies are coming up with automated biometric software or systems which help reduce costs and offer enhanced intelligence with automated features.
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A new European Union agency – tasked with managing large-scale information technology systems that hold millions of records related to migration and security, including biometric data – will be inaugurated by EU home affairs commissioner Cecilia Malmström in Estonia tomorrow.Databases include:
She said a new system, biometric solutions, that was introduced in the state, had led to the decentralisation of the verification exercise.Reducing losses and adding convenience. In technical circles, we call that a twofer.
She said, “Before, verification was done at just one centre. Now, pensioners are verified at the nearest council to their residence. The government is determined to improve the well being of pensioners.
“The decentralisation has reduced stress for our pensioners. Lagos State Government does not owe any pensioner.”
Madi Eswari, 50, of Kolanara block in Rayagada is managing at last to keep hunger at bay. She is being helped by technology, or to be precise bar codes, to put an end to the rampant pilferage that marks the public distribution system (PDS) in this tribal district in Odisha where some of the poorest in the country live.The entirety of the article is an excellent study of how the poor are exploited, why it's hard to help, and how biometrics are being used to try to change that.
Earlier, despite having a ration card entitling her to subsidised rice at Rs 2 a kilo through the PDS, Eswari would be forced to buy rice in the open market at five times this price because local fair price shop claimed that stocks of subsidised rice had not come in. “Every time I went there, the shopkeeper would tell me to come back the next day. Sometimes I would find that someone else had taken my quota of foodgrains, and I didn't know what to do about it. With this new ration card at least I get what is my due at the subsidised price,” she says.
The implementation of the biometric ration card system that is helping to ease Eswari's life is an initiative of the Odisha state government in collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme.
Frost & Sullivan has carried out a new assessment of the global biometrics market that predicts 2010 revenues of $4.49 billion will increase to $14.685 billion by 2019.
Universal adoption of biometric passports will be the driving force in this growth as so-called eGates are implemented at borders around the world.
Portable devices used by the police and the military will also become increasingly common in the fight against crime and terrorism, according to the report.
Frost & Sullivan also suggests that biometrics will be almost universally adopted in the identification of citizens through IDs, driver's licenses and healthcards complete with biometric capabilities.
Prior opinion held that humans recognized the face as a whole, meaning that there is something about the picture created by the entire face – the particular arrangement of a face’s eyes, nose, and mouth and not just these features themselves – that makes it easier for the human brain to make a positive ID.The study is published (behind a pay-wall) in Psychological Science. You can purchase it, or read the Abstract here.
The new research suggests differently.
A panel of judges consisting of eminent computer scientists, information technology (IT) experts and technology gurus have selected Malik for the said award for his contribution in transforming NADRA from an identity card issuing authority to a profitable international business organisation. It is rolling out cutting edge biometric technology solutions, which result in good governance.Congratulations, Tariq.
...NIDMC also urged Gupta to seek political consensus in Parliament and approve the bill to avoid unnecessary delay in issuing cards. The law minister must give the bill a go-ahead before sending it to the Cabinet.
The government has already earmarked budget for the project to start issuing the multi-purpose bio-metric NID cards to all the citizens from this fiscal"...
As many as 61,000 people arriving in and departing from the country have undergone a facial recognition scan (FRS) since the system became operational in 2009, according to Captain Jamal Al Houssani, Head of the Technical Affairs Division at the General Secretariat of the Minister of Interior’s office.
“The facial recognition system is a means used to deter and intercept those who had an earlier entry ban so that they could not re-enter the country, and boosts security and stability of the country,” said Capt Al Houssani.
Also, the IT-BPO companies, where these drivers provide their services, were to facilitate the preparation of the database. Their fingerprints on a biometric device, photograph and scanned copy of driving licence were to be a part of the database which were to be uploaded on the Nasscom website.At the end, it's always about people.
The information was to be shared with the Gurgaon police and all the firms. However, none of the measures have been actually implemented. "Everybody seems to have conveniently forgotten about executing these decisions. The BPO companies should be doing what they are ought to," said a BPO transporter.
“We strongly condemn this act by people who allow themselves to be used,” Governor Esmael Mangudadatu said. “I strongly appeal to the President and to Comelec Chair (Sixto) Brillantes to annul the old list of voters starting today and conduct a totally new registration of voters using the biometric system.”People in developing democracies seem to be picking up on the idea that biometric voter systems can bring the cost of clean elections within their reach.
At least 50 of the people hauled to police stations were minors, said Chief Inspector Abubakar Mangelen Jr., head of the provincial police mobile group.
Previously, Zoom Tan discovered that many of their members often come directly from the gym without their credit or debit cards, which limited their ability to make purchases at the tanning salon. To better serve their customers, Zoom Tan created ZoomPay, a biometrically-enabled software application that enables customers to keep their card information safely on file and purchase products with the touch of their finger.This deployment has it all.
"Biometric technology is a unique way to improve customer service," said Scott Bogdan, director of operations at Zoom Tan. "Our members love being able to make purchases without the burden of carrying around cash and credit cards. DigitalPersona's technology was incredibly easy to integrate into our application."
In addition to enabling more purchases by members, biometrics also significantly reduced fraud at Zoom Tan salons. Members were knowingly and unknowingly sharing their membership information with friends and relatives. Now, with fingerprint biometrics, only properly-registered members can sign-in for tanning sessions. In addition, Zoom Tan adopted biometrics for employee time and attendance management. This has enabled employees to accurately get credit for their shifts while preventing them from fraudulently clocking co-workers in and out.
"We have made it quite clear that Aadhaar will form the underlying platform for government services," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told ET. Adds Ajai Chowdhary, chairman of HCL Infosystems, a UIDAI vendor: "Aadhaar will become important also for private companies who want to authenticate their employees and customers."Well, it's difficult to be more clear than that.
Iris recognition is arguably the most accurate form of biometrics in use today. One of the reasons is the sheer numbers of unique characteristics that are measurable within the irises far outnumber other biometrics such as in fingerprints. Additionally, the iris is naturally protected by the cornea and its patterns remain stable over a person’s lifetime, which is not the case with other physical data points such as ears, fingers, and face.
The use of iris scanning to meet critical identity authentication needs has steadily increased internationally in the private and public sectors. Applications include banking, building access control, aviation security, health care, schools and border-crossing. Iris scanning is also becoming a valuable tool in law enforcement and corrections.
In the Yavapai County jails, the technology will be used with both the detainee and sentenced populations.
According to various news reports, the sophisticated face-recognition technology ultimately delivered the perp to the cops, but this is overlooking the most important part: this criminal had his pictures posted on Facebook, and the brother of the guy he shot knew where to look for them. [emph. in orig.]NYPD Unveils CSI-Esque Facial Recognition Unit (Gothamist)
The NYPD is starting to catch up with CSI: they announced yesterday that they have started incorporating a new facial recognition unit into the department, which will use digital technology to match video images of people at crime scenes to mug shots on file. It promises to be their biggest technological advancement since they discovered the Segway.
Developed at the Hefei University of Technology, in China, the clever tech will first of all analyse a film, identify the characters via facial recognition, and then start taking screen-grabs of the action. Once this is complete, it can shuffle and order the screen-grabs to tell a coherent story through the medium of the comic panel format.
And then finally it can add speech bubbles, and render the finished images in the chosen style, for instance as a cartoon-or as anime.
Global Entry is a voluntary program in which “low-risk” international travelers who pay $100 and pass a screening and interview process are allowed to bypass the line of international travelers waiting for processing by a customers and border officer, Ruiz said.
“Membership is for five years and it expedites your entry into 24 major airports in the U.S.,” he said.
Travelers are “processed by biometric identification using a designated kiosk” — a process that cuts average wait times by more than 70 percent, according to the agency.
Before prescribing or dispensing medication, medical providers would be required gather to information including the prescribing doctor’s name, office address, medication instructions, and the name and address of the patient, in addition to their biometric identifier -- a fingerprint or retinal scan. In other industries, facial and vein recognition [5] have also been used for verification.I sincerely doubt retina scans will be involved. If the eye is deemed necessary, iris would seem to make more sense.
The patient’s data would be converted into a unique identifier and sent (encrypted) to the pharmacy. Only the receiving pharmacy could decrypt the information. That’s how it should work. But privacy advocates say gathering so much data would provide dangerously detailed information about patients if hackers decided to target the database.
"Of course, the time clock can only establish the time they are on the job," Winney said. "It can't make anyone work harder once at the job."Read the whole thing. Smaller localities are rapidly adopting biometric time-and-attendance solutions, and their news outlets frequently do an excellent job of illuminating the issues involved in a concise, no-nonsense, way.
A major government contractor agreed on Wednesday to pay a record $500 million to avoid federal prosecution for its role in the scandal-tarred CityTime project, an effort at modernizing New York’s payroll system. The project was plagued by widespread fraud and weak oversight and became a lingering embarrassment for Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s administration.There is a great need to bring modern time and attendance techniques to the operations of cities large and small. The potential ROI is huge.
Under an agreement with federal prosecutors, the contractor, Science Applications International Corporation, will reimburse the city for about 80 percent of the money it spent on the project, whose budget ballooned to nearly $700 million, from $73 million, and was described by the United States attorney in Manhattan, Preet Bharara, as “a fraudsters’ field day that lasted seven years.”
The award was presented at the 38th Annual Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce Public Safety Awards Luncheon which recognizes the acts of valor and service of our dedicated public safety personnel, according to the chamber. "We are honored to be part of this award ceremony which distinguishes true heroes who faithfully and unselfishly protect our safety," said James M. Myers, vice president and general manager, Civil Systems Division, Northrop Grumman Information Systems sector.
On the biometric verification, he noted that the Team reduced the over-bloated figures of genuine pensioners to 70,658, with a corresponding reduction of the monthly budget paid to them to N825 million.Biometrics give the good guys tools to help their country.
According him, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, NUP collaborated with the civil servants to siphon part of the pension funds.
He gave an instance where the taskforce found out how the bank account of the NUP, where the monthly check off dues of the association kept growing from N15 million to over N2 billion due to proceeds from the alleged fraud in the scheme.
He said this extra amount was later transferred to the bank accounts of the fraudulent 32 staffs at the office of the HOS.
The committee expressed shock with the revelation, lamenting that the fraud in the system had denied retired pensioners their entitlements.
Implementation of the Unique Identification (UID) project has progressed and about 13 crore Aadhaar numbers (UID numbers) have already been generated. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has scaled up enrolments and has also established infrastructure capabilities to generate 10 lakh Aadhaar numbers every day. The UIDAI is on the verge of commencing Phase III of the scheme, which apart from enrolling residents and issuing Aadhaar numbers extends to providing updation services, a robust authentication process as a means of enhancing service delivery of various social schemes, and facilitating financial inclusion and development of Aadhaar-enabled applications to leverage Aadhaar.
The UIDAI has commenced interaction with Ministries/Departments for developing applications leveraging the Aadhaar number, Aadhaar-enabled transactions and infrastructure to improve the service delivery of various social-sector schemes.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has notified that Aadhaar shall be treated as a valid proof of identity (PoI) and proof of address (PoA) after confirming identity and address through the Aadhaar authentication procedure.
The Department of Health and Family Welfare has decided to recognize UID numbers (Aadhaar) as Pol and PoA for extending financial assistance to BPL patients who are suffering from major life threatening diseases and receiving medical treatment at any of the super specialty hospitals/ institutes or other government hospitals under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN).
The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has issued necessary instructions for recognition of Aadhaar as PoI/ PoA for evidence of age and address for issuing a driving licence and for registration of vehicles.
The Department of Expenditure has issued instructions for the revision of the format for submission of proposals for approval of the Expenditure Finance Committee wherein the linkage of the beneficiary identification mechanism with the Aadhaar number is to be indicated. The Aadhaar number has been recognized as valid PoI/PoA for obtaining new LPG connections.
The state governments of Sikkim, Tripura, and Andhra Pradesh have also declared the Aadhaar number valid Pol and PoA for their various schemes. Karnataka has also drawn up a plan for implementation of the Aadhaar project and also for the Karnataka Resident Data Hub for integration of the Aadhaar number with various services.
An Aadhaar Payments Bridge has been designed and is being tested on pilot basis for MGNREGA payments in Jharkhand. The Aadhaar Payments Bridge will enable the transfer of funds directly into the bank accounts of beneficiaries on the basis of the Aadhaar number. This will considerably simplify the process of disbursement of welfare funds by government departments.
Fatmata Gbla, 60, has been sentenced to six years imprisonment or pay a fine of Le 500,000 for registering twice in the ongoing biometric voter registration.5,000,000.00 SLL = 1,144.63 USD
The fees will go to state agencies, such as the departments of Licensing and Transportation and the State Patrol, but not necessarily to the facial recognition program, said Brad Benfield, Licensing Department spokesman.Implementing a facial recognition deduplication routine within the Washington State drivers license database isn't free, but it doesn't explain the big jump in fees, either.
The state has already installed facial recognition software using federal funding given to encourage improved security in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.
Benfield said the system enables the department to identify an applicant who is registered under one or more identities, block the issuance of a new card and refer the case to law enforcement. Common examples of fraudulent use include someone seeking a new license under a different name because his or her real license is suspended, or minors using the information of someone age 21 or older to get a fake license to buy alcohol.
The 17 per cent increase in Namibia’s banked population since 2007 came mostly from low-income earners, aged 32 to 39, living in rural areas.Since ID management is one of the post office's main functions, it was really interesting to see this article about how the Namibian post office NamPost is contributing to the increasing number of Namibians with access to financial services.
Better financial access was driven largely by innovative, low-cost and safer products and services by NamPost. “NamPost has changed their product and strategy which has significantly driven product uptake: the physical savings book product was terminated and a biometric smartcard aimed at low-income users was introduced,” the survey said. Significant growth in bank branches across the country also improved.
The compilation of a new voter register will surely ensure multiple registration is avoided and will lead to a further enhancement of Ghana’s electoral process.
In 2008, the rig-sayers were helped by the admission on the part of the Electoral Commissioner that the voter register was massively bloated. Ghana, with a population of less than 23 million people, said it had a voter population of some 10 million.
Not only does a bloated register give political parties the opportunity to rig elections, they also give rig-sayers the legitimacy to say to their supporters and sympathisers that they have been cheated and that they should stand up and resist – whether the claim is true or false. This is what characterised the 2008 general elections in Ghana
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| Photo: Windsor Star uses face.com software to rank of city councilors' happiness. |
Marra, who described himself as a “happy-go-lucky kind of guy,” said people who know him would be surprised by face.com’s bleak assessment of his picture.Read it. It's funny.
“This is public corruption at its worst,” said Chester County District Attorney Thomas P. Hogan. “We have a state employee abusing his position in order to help and hide criminals.”
According to a criminal complaint filed by state police, the investigation began in August 2011 after an unnamed victim received a duplicate driver’s license with someone else’s photo displayed. PennDOT records showed the driver’s license had been modified by someone in the Malvern licensing center in May 2010.
Investigators then used facial recognition software to identify an additional license that had been modified to show the face of the same imposter. Both counterfeit licenses were obtained from the Malvern center, police said
The Post Office knows it's in trouble; only 20m of us will visit a branch at least once a week, compared to 28m doing so at the turn of the Millennium. Key to remaining relevant is a plan to become more digitally enabled: thus the strategy announcement is big on the roll-out of biometric data capture equipment to nearly 800 branches nationwide, something it says will allow it to "compete for tenders to deliver assisted application and identity verification services". [PublicTechnology.net]The post offices in the United States also provide more explicit identity assurance services in their role in issuing passports.
There is another camera inside, on the car roof, for facial recognition that is linked to the Police National Database.I just snipped out the bit about facial recognition. If you're a car fanatic, you'll might want to click through.
The camera takes a picture of back seat "passengers" and within seconds reports on whether they have a criminal record. Amazingly, it can check through eight million records in a second.
Abdulrasheed also told the committee that the revolution introduced in the nation's pensions fund management by former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Mr. Steve Oronsanye, had simplified the administration and disbursement of the pension scheme to beneficiaries.Read the whole thing.
He disclosed that as at December, last year, a total of 49,395 pensioners including those who retired as far back as 1968 who had never been enrolled had now been verified and their biometrics captured, bringing the total number of pensioners on the payroll to 120,733.
"Prior to the introduction of the biometric system, government had been paying 141,792 pensioners up to the tune of about N3.3 billion as regular monthly pension," Abdulrasheed disclosed, saying however that "following the exercise, it was found that 70,657 pensioners were qualified and eligible to draw regular monthly pension out of the 141,790 pensioners who were hitherto on the payroll".
The PRTT boss also disclosed that the government spent N250 million yearly between 2005 and 2011 on pensioners' verification exercise, adding however that "in order to avoid this and cut cost, we devised a system of smart card through which the pensioners could now receive their pay through the ATM".
He further enumerated other achievements of the PRTT to include: "reduction of pension wage bill from N5 billion to N1.6 billion monthly resulting in N3.4 billion savings from June 2010 to December 2011".
...[T]he U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit ruled it is now legal for police to search cell phones without a warrant.Securing mobile devices and the information they both hold and create is perhaps the greatest privacy issue of our time. Biometric applications have a role to play in protecting privacy.
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However, Coggins wonders if it opens the door to more extensive searches down the road. “Does that mean officers now have the right to search through your phone, search through your search history, your photographs, your e-mails and the rest, because it could all be wiped clean,” Coggins asked.
Many critics are asking the same question. They call the ruling an invasion of privacy that far outweighs the needs of law enforcement.
Both Defenbaugh and Coggins agree that the case is likely to go to the U.S. Supreme court.
"Earlier Monday, police questioned a 24-year-old man but released him after interviewing him. Law-enforcement sources told NBC New York that they were led to the man after using facial recognition software on a still photo taken from a surveillance camera. The search turned up a possible hit -- an old mugshot for the 24-year-old man."Because sometimes the only clue is a face.
In what could revolutionise the public distribution system (PDS), the office of the Food Distribution Officer (FDO), Pune has embarked upon an ambitious project of digitalising details of the more than 7 lakh ration cards in the district along with details of the 1,000-odd fair price shops in the eight zones that fall under it. Pune district is the first in the state where this unique project is being implemented.1 lakh = 100,000
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“Although we weeded out around 2 lakh bogus cards, there still might be duplications in the list. Once all details are fed into the software, it would be able to check for duplications and those cards would be deleted,” she said.
Biometric vendors de-duplicating Aadhaar numbers have refused to work with Unique ID Authority of India after finishing their contract, next month. The vendors were eliminating duplicate or redundant information in the Aadhaar IDs at the price of Rs 2.75 per number fixed with the agency.See also:
Row between Nandan Nilekani led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and the Planning Commission is not over with the former expressing its displeasure over allocation for the next financial year.More detail at the link.
The Plan Panel had earlier objected to UIDAI’s move to collect biometric details of entire population saying it would lead to duplication of work as Home Ministry’s National Population Register (NPR) had a similar mandate.
The issue was resolved after a Cabinet Committee on UIDAI decided to split biometric collection of residents between the authority and NPR. After the Cabinet decision, plan panel deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia had claimed that both the organizations --- UIDAI and NPR --- will work together to implement the decision.
The UIDAI has now charged the plan panel of putting a financial barrier to meet the target of enrolling additional 40 crore people by June next year.
Though it's been around since 2008, Global Entry is little-known outside the world of international globe trotters. It is open to U.S. citizens and permanent residents as well as Canadian, Mexican and Dutch nationals. Unlike Pre-Check, which relies on the airlines to vouch for their frequent flyers, Global Entry requires applicants to undergo a background check and interview before they can enroll.
Once in, they can use special kiosks that scan their passports and fingerprints. Although they are still subject to random checks, Global Entry members can usually bypass the long lines of passengers waiting to be interviewed by a customs officer at passport control. They also become automatic members of Pre-Check, which allows them to use dedicated lanes to whisk through domestic airport security.
“The inclusion of their biodata within a government database will lead to greater protection for refugees, particularly against arrest and detention as their identities can be easily verified by law enforcement officials,” said UNHCR representative Alan Vernon at the time.I love to read about how such a wide variety of organizations apply biometric ID management technology to challenges. Burmese refugees don't get a lot of attention in the global press so this article is very informative.
“This will also help prevent prosecution of persons holding UNHCR documents for immigration offenses or deportation,” he added.
The UNHCR refugee registration program was scheduled to begin in January 2012. However, it has not started yet due to technical problems, according to a person familiar with program who asked to remain anonymous.
But acceptance into a 6P-based scheme does not guarantee an easy ride for Burmese migrants working in Malaysia, with many current 6P participants finding themselves worse off than before.
Government employees can no longer sneak a French leave or walk out before 5.30pm. The Mamata Banerjee government is installing fingerprint readers that will record the time an employee logs in and logs out of office."French leave" was a new one on me.
Attendance has always been a prickly issue with government employees. Many staff walk in late by simply signing in. Those who sneak out before closing time have evolved any number of smart tricks, including leaving their spectacles or bag on their table to feign that they are around and would return any time. Last week, on the day of the bandh, there was a tampering of the attendance register in the agriculture directorate at Writers' Buildings. Some staff were absent in spite of the threat of break in service but when a headcount was ordered, the page for February28 went missing.
The Senate President, who was represented by the Senate Leader, Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, said: “These people, the administrators stealing pension funds, can never live in peace because the prayers of these old men and women who have diligently served the country will haunt them and their children’s children. I implore the committee to unravel all the issues pertaining to the mismanagement of pension funds in the country and bring the perpetrators to book. Let me assure that this committee has the full backing of the Senate on this.”
Meanwhile, Obada who made gave the assurance to some of the retirees in Lagos at the ongoing annual verification exercise being held at the grounds of the Nigerian Army, 9th Brigade, Ikeja, said: “The yearly verification exercise is to ensure that we are paying the right people and not ghost retirees. We insist it to checkmate relatives of deceased retirees from claiming the benefits of a dead person.”
THISDAY gathered that the verification exercise which began yesterday, would involve biometric data capture.
Obada said: “This exercise will involve the biometric data capture which includes the iris scan and finger print capture.”
Two years after a controversy arose because Bank of America required non-customers to get fingerprinted before cashing checks, one legislator wants to make sure it can’t happen again.Paper checks are a very insecure method of conducting financial transactions and this is true for both parties to the transaction. The person writing the check gives away a piece of paper with a substantial amount of the information necessary for identity theft and the person (or entity) receiving the check takes certain risks of non-payment.
“The banks are saying ‘We need this to get the criminals,’ but in the process they’re treating all the citizens of New Hampshire as criminals,” said Rep. James Webb, R-Derry.
He is co-sponsor of a bill, HB 1262, “prohibiting banks from requiring blood samples, fingerprints, and DNA samples in order to complete a banking transaction.”
The Department of Homeland Security is finalizing its plan for a biometric data system to track when immigrants leave the United States and will present it to Congress within "weeks," a top department official told a House Homeland Security subcommittee Tuesday.I think a lot of people would be surprised to learn that a comprehensive automated system for recording the departure of visitors isn't already in place at US entry and departure points. It's the kind of thing people just assume happens as a matter of course.
An exit system to track who is leaving the country and when has been sought since before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. DHS officials, including Secretary Janet Napolitano, have agreed with the need for such a program but have previously said it would be too costly.
While UIDAI has allotted Aadhaar identities to 130 million residents, only around 50 million have received letters sent by the authority through India Post informing them about their 12-digit unique identification numbers. The letters have been mailed since the the first set of Aadhaar numbers were issued in September 2010. Some 450,000 letters have been returned to UIDAI.I suspect that none of these contingency plans were made up on the fly*. UIDAI knew it would have to use the post office and knew it would fail. There probably isn't a private entity in India that can displace the post office entirely, but competition among government entities is better than no competition at all and UID is also entering that competition directly by communicating numbers directly to individuals who have access to the internet.
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The job of printing the letters has already been taken away from the agency which, according to its website, is the world’s largest postal network with 155,015 post offices as on 31 March 2009. Three private sector firms were given the printing job in January-end after India Post wasn’t able to take the load.
Potentially important fingerprint evidence is currently not being considered in legal proceedings owing to shortcomings in the way it is reported, according to a report published Wednesday in Significance, the magazine of the Royal Statistical Society and the American Statistical Association. Researchers involved in the study have devised a statistical model to enable the weight of fingerprint evidence to be quantified, paving the way for its full inclusion in the criminal identification process.It may come as a surprise that fingerprint evidence in court cases depends upon expert witness testimony. It is only admitted if an expert claims absolute certainty of a match.
A Wiley release reports that fingerprints have been used for over a century as a way of identifying criminals. Fingerprint evidence, however, is not currently permitted to be reported in court unless examiners claim absolute certainty that a mark has been left by a particular suspect. This courtroom certainty is based purely on categorical personal opinion, formed through years of training and experience, but not on logic or scientific data. Less-than-certain fingerprint evidence is not reported at all, irrespective of the potential weight and relevance of this evidence in a case.
Deciding whether two fingerprint marks originate from the same source requires examination and comparison of their features. Many cognitive factors play a major role in such information processing. In this paper we examined the consistency (both between- and within-experts) in the analysis of latent marks, and whether the presence of a ‘target’ comparison print affects this analysis. Our findings showed that the context of a comparison print affected analysis of the latent mark, possibly influencing allocation of attention, visual search, and threshold for determining a ‘signal’. We also found that even without the context of the comparison print there was still a lack of consistency in analysing latent marks. Not only was this reflected by inconsistency between different experts, but the same experts at different times were inconsistent with their own analysis. However, the characterization of these inconsistencies depends on the standard and definition of what constitutes inconsistent. Furthermore, these effects were not uniform; the lack of consistency varied across fingerprints and experts. We propose solutions to mediate variability in the analysis of friction ridge skin.Cognitive Solutions has quantified the error rates of the current system and have made proposals to reduce those error rates. They propose a reassessment of how examiners are recruited and trained; And since different types of latent print lead to different error rates, they recommend further research into the categorization of latent fingerprints.
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Figure 2, slightly edited, from Significance. Fingerprints at the Crime Scene.
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Historically, in most countries, 12 minutiae that matched each other in type, orientation and position have generally been considered sufficient to identify the source of the mark. Until 2001 the UK required 16 correspondences to establish proof of identity. Both these numbers arose through experience rather than statistical analysis.
The reasoning that currently leads experts from minutiae to identification is essentially a psychological one that cannot be rationalized and rendered explicit. The method that my colleagues and I have presented also relies on those minutiae; but numbers are derived from them.
On any given finger impression, the most prominent minutiae – say six – can be selected and joined up, in a clockwise direction (see Figure 2). They will form a pattern – essentially a six-sided polygon around a centre. (The centre can be defined as the arithmetic mean of the Cartesian co-ordinates of our six points.) A polygon is a much simpler pattern than the whirling lines of a full print or mark. It is also much easier to analyse numerically. The basis of the method is to describe that polygon with a set of variables.
