Singapore’s Government Technology Agency (GovTech) has revealed that face recognition will be used as part of its national digital identity system.
Kwok Quek Sin, senior director of NDI from GovTech, confirmed the move at a session during the inaugural GovTech STACK Summit, reports Gov Insider Asia.
The news website notes that GovTech is creating a centralised biometrics system to save users the hassle of repeated enrollments. Citizens will only need to register their biometric information once under the centralised NDI system.
The government is offering “software development kits and plug-ins” to industries like banking and finance, so that companies can connect their services to the nation’s centralised biometric platform. “We want to provide this as a service so that there’s zero enrollment,” Kwok shared. “This is for one-to-one authentication,” he said. Users can present a unique biometric trait – their fingerprints, face, or voice – which the system then validates. This means that the process is “driven by the users”, Kwok added.
Biometrics is only one facet of Singapore’s national digital identity system, which will be completed by 2020. “Our goal is to build a universally-trusted data ecosystem,” Kwok shared. “In the future, your identity can be provisioned in different types and forms, be it smart cards or in future, wearables,” he said. “We intend to issue NDI free for all citizens.”
Source: Planetbiometrics
