UK government awards digital identification contract

Facial recognition technology specialist iProov has announced that it will play a "key role" in a multi-year contract with the UK Home Office to provide smartphone-based digital identity verification.

According to the company, the new digital service will be provided in partnership with immigration and border management company WorldReach Software, with support from Dutch contactless document specialist ReadID. It will allow secure enrolment onto Home Office services using a smartphone app, with the process involving "biometric matching of the user’s selfie against the image read from a user’s passport chip."

The technology will be included on the app to support applications for the EU Exit Settlement Scheme.

Speaking of the contract, iProov founder and CEO, Andrew Bud said: “We are delighted that the Home Office has chosen to use our unique technology for this large and important application. Our position as the worldwide leader in this sector has been built with great support from the UK government over many years. Our mission to assure trust in the online ecosystem has never been more important.”

He continued: "iProov is unique in its ability to ‘assure genuine presence’. In a self-serve identity verification environment, a system must be able to confirm whether or not the person presenting themselves for verification is genuinely the owner of an ID credential – not a photo, screen image, a recording or doctored video. iProov has eleven granted patents in the UK and US for its technology which detects such attempted frauds."