Author Archives: bredemarket

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DHS TSA mDL Public Meeting general observations

As I previously noted, today (June 30, 2021) was the day for the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration to hold its public meeting on its Request for Comment on “Minimum Standards for Driver’s Licenses and Identification Cards Acceptable by Federal Agencies for Official Purposes; Mobile Driver’s Licenses.” (See PDF or text version. The second link contains the method for providing comments.)

I will not provide a recap of the comments made by participants during the meeting, but will instead provide some general observations.

Incidentally, the list of all meeting participants will be made public at some point, and it’s possible that the chat transcript from the meeting will also be made public at some point.

Agreement and disagreement among the participants

As can be expected, there were a variety of views expressed at the meeting, ranging from industry comments about the items that should be in the DHS standard, to privacy advocates who questioned why DHS was implementing a standard at all. One example:

  • Industry participants, such as myself, were enthusiastic about the ability of a mobile driver’s license (mDL) to automatically update itself when new information became available at the DMV. For example, if I move to a new address, the DMV can automatically update the mDL on my smartphone to reflect the new address.
  • Privacy participants were, to put it mildly, a bit less enthusiastic about this feature. Physical driver’s licenses are updated as infrequently as every ten years; why should digital driver’s licenses be any different?

But there was apparent agreement between the industry and privacy participants about one possible feature on mDLs – the ability to control the data that leaves the smartphone and is sent to the verifying official. Everyone seemed to agree that this information should be granular, and that the mDL should not automatically send ALL available information on the mDL.

Let me provide an example. When I go to a bar and use my physical driver’s license to prove my age, the verifier (Jane Bartender) is provided access to my name, my address, my date of birth, my height, my (claimed) weight, and all sorts of personal information that would freak out your average privacy advocate. NONE of this information is needed to prove my age, not even my date of birth. All that the verifier needs to know is whether I am over the age of 21. An mDL can be designed to specifically state ONLY that I am over the age of 21 without revealing my birthdate, my address, or my (claimed) weight.

(You’d think that the privacy advocates would be thrilled about this granularity and would urge people to use mDLs because of this privacy benefit, but privacy and security folks are naturally suspicious and have a hunch that all of the information is being provided in the background anyway through double-secret means.)

But are the participants ready to respond to the RFC?

I had one other observation from the meeting. Before sharing it, I should explain that the meeting allowed the participants to ORALLY share the views that they will subsequently express in WRITTEN comments on or before the July 30 deadline.

And based upon the oral comments that I heard, some of the participants are ready to share their written comments…and others are not.

There were participants who spoke to the DHS about their items of interest, not only briefly stating these items, but WHY these items should be important to the DHS and to the general public.

And then there were participants who concentrated on unimportant details that were NOT of interest to the DHS or the general public. I won’t provide specific examples, but let’s just say that some participants talked about themselves rather than about DHS’ needs.

If these participants’ written comments are of the same tone as their oral comments, I can assure you that their comments will not influence the DHS in any way. Although I guess they can go back to their organizations and proudly proclaim, “We told the DHS how important we are!”

The DHS doesn’t care how important you are. In the DHS’ mind, you are not important. Only the DHS is important. (Oh, and the Congresspeople who fund the DHS are important, I guess.)

Perhaps in the next 30 days these other participants will take a look back at their message drafts and ask themselves the “So what?” question. What will motivate the DHS to incorporate desired features into the standard? And why should they?

And, as always, I can help. If nothing else, I can confidentially review your draft comments before submission and provide some suggestions. (Yes, it’s shameless plug time.)

If I can help you with your RFC response:

Or perhaps you are ready to respond now. I guess we’ll all find out when the DHS publishes its final standards, which may or may not reflect your priorities.

COVID is no longer profitable (for a few, anyway)

In the spring of 2000, the COVID-19 crisis brought vast changes to economies throughout the world. Some businesses completely ground to a halt, such as sporting events, while a number of new businesses sprang up.

Now that COVID is (hopefully) receding, some of those newer businesses are fading away.

Take Maskalike – please!

https://maskalike.com/ as of June 29, 2021.

Before COVID hit, you generally only saw people wearing masks in operating rooms, unless you visited Disneyland and saw Asian visitors walking around with masks. All of a sudden EVERYONE was wearing masks, and you had people getting creative in their design. Maskalike’s gimmick was to create masks that looked just like the portion of your face that was being covered by the mask.

But Maskalike is closing down in a few short days.

It’s been an amazing run bringing thousands of smiles to people, but this project was always supposed to be temporary and we’re getting busy with new ideas. If you have any questions, or want to acquire this company, get in touch. Otherwise, get your order in!

Let’s face it: people aren’t going to be buying a lot of masks any more. In fact, I’m sure that some people never want to see a face mask ever again.

Perhaps some novelty company will buy Maskalike and include it in its catalog, along with other gimmicky things.

If not, it was good while it lasted.

And I’m still keeping my Rodrigo’s mask that I won on Instagram, even though I have no idea where I’m going to wear it.

The air industry is worried about EU Digital COVID certificate activity on July 1

Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris. By NASA – NASA/JSC, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7156445

So for the last few months we’ve been saying “we need travelers.” And now that we’re about to get travelers, people are getting worried.

The European Union’s system of digital COVID-19 travel certificates is due to come into force on Thursday, but airports group ACI and airlines representative bodies A4E, IATA and ERA warned in a letter to EU national leaders of a “worrying patchwork of approaches” across the continent.

Of course, we’ve known for some time that the EU Digital COVID Certificates are being implemented on a national basis. But now the airport and airline industries are warning that checking the certificates can be dizzying.

The letter said the only way to avoid huge queues and delays during the peak summer season was to implement a system whereby both the vaccination certificate and passenger locator forms are processed remotely before the passenger arrives at the airport.

Checks must only take place in the country of departure and not on arrival and national governments should manage the health data and provide equipment to check the QR codes, the letter said.

So there will be some confusion on Thursday. But will the confusion outweigh the benefits of increased travel?

DNA reunions of families don’t just happen at the U.S.-Mexico border

Dr. Michael Bowers shared an article about DNA-ProKids.

From the article:

DNA-ProKids works with governments in Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Paraguay, Thailand, Brazil, India and Malaysia….

The programme uses our unique genetic footprint to trace thousands of missing children around the world. Some have been stolen from their parents and trafficked for sex or as slave labour, others sold in illegal adoptions, and some lost in hospital mix-ups….

The article includes several stories, including one of a woman who was drugged and her baby taken from her.

Guatemala’s government, which uses the DNA-ProKids programme, contacted the police who were able to find the baby using DNA within 48 hours. The thief, who was wearing a mask because of the pandemic, could not be identified.

Read more here, or visit the DNA-ProKids website.

(Bredemarket Premium) The mechanics of acquisitions

During my years in biometrics, my employer was acquired by another firm three times:

  • Printrak was acquired by Motorola in 2000.
  • Part of Motorola was acquired by Safran in 2009.
  • Part of Safran was acquired by Oberthur in 2017. (The combined entity was named IDEMIA.)
CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=243386

Acquisitions always cause a lot of changes, but one of these three acquisitions caused more changes than any of the others.

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(Past illustrations) Creating win-win marketing materials for a company and its strategic supplier

(This past illustration describes something that I performed in my career, either for a Bredemarket client, for an employer, or as a volunteer. The entity for which I performed the work, or proposed to perform the work, is not listed for confidentiality reasons.)

PROBLEM

A modern automobile assembly line. By User: Anonyme – Own work, CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1987247

A company shifted from one supplier to a new strategic supplier.

It was in the interest of the strategic supplier to promote its viability in certain use cases, including the use case for which the company employed the product.

At the same time, it was in the interest of the company to promote its association with the strategic supplier, both to showcase its commitment to technical innovation and to expose its offering to new customers.

SOLUTION

As an employee of the company that had partnered with the strategic supplier, I participated in several joint marketing projects. These included creating and reviewing written marketing materials, participating in interviews with third-party publications, and appearing in videos directed by the strategic supplier.

For many of my efforts, I was assisted by a company colleague who had received technical certifications from the strategic supplier. Therefore, many of my efforts not only promoted my company and its strategic supplier, but also this colleague, since promotion of this person also furthered the promotion of the two firms.

RESULTS

Both companies (and the colleague) received prominent coverage that achieved everyone’s objectives. The company was recognized as a technical innovator compared to its competitors, the strategic partner was recognized for its ability to handle the company’s specific data needs, and the colleague received additional certifications that reflected well on both firms.

Read Mike French’s “Why agencies should conduct their own AFIS benchmarks rather than relying on others.”

Today my content calendar says that I’m supposed to be posting about social media, so I’m going to discuss a LinkedIn article. That fits, doesn’t it?

Seriously, Mike French has posted his long-awaited (by me, anyway) article on the need for automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) benchmarks. And his perspective is valuable.

People enter the AFIS industry in different ways. I entered the industry as a writer, and therefore needed some time to master the forensic and technical concepts. Mike came from the forensic disciplines, having worked in the Latent Print Unit at the King County Sheriff’s Office before joining Sagem Morpho, which became MorphoTrak, which became IDEMIA Identity & Security N.A.

By Frettie – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=6158485

Because of this background, Mike obviously has an appreciation for a law enforcement agency’s forensic requirements, and why it is important for the agency to conduct its own benchmark of AFIS vendors. As Mike notes, more and more agencies are choosing to rely on independent measurements based on test data. This may not be the best course for an agency.

But go read Mike’s words yourself.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-agencies-should-conduct-own-afis-benchmarks-rather-mike-french/

Even Apple is moving to a service model. Biometric identity vendors are moving also.

Remember when you bought a big old hunk of hardware…and you owned it?

With cloud computing, significant portions of hardware were no longer owned by companies and people, but were instead provided as a service. And the companies moved from getting revenue from selling physical items to getting revenue from selling services.

From Apple Computer to Apple

Apple is one of those companies, as its formal name change from “Apple Computer” signifies.

Then “Apple Computer” circa 1978. From https://www.macrumors.com/2020/03/23/apple-computer-retail-sign/. Fair use.

Yet even as iTunes and “the” App Store become more prominent, Apple still made a mint out of selling new smartphone hardware to users as frequently as possible.

But Apple is making a change later in 2021, and Adrian Kingsley-Hughes noted the significance of that change.

The change?

So, it turns out that come the release of iOS 15 (and iPadOS 15) later this year, users will get a choice.

Quite an important choice.

iPhone users can choose to hit the update button and go down the iOS 15 route, or play it safe and stick with iOS 14.

Why is Apple supporting older hardware?

So Apple is no longer encouraging users to dump their old phones to keep up with new operating systems like the forthcoming iOS 15?

There’s a reason.

By sticking with iOS 14, iPhone users will continue to get security updates, which keeps their devices safe, and Apple gets to keep those users in the ecosystem.

They can continue to buy content and apps and pay for services such as iCloud.

Although Kingsley-Hughes doesn’t explicitly say it, there is a real danger when you force users to abandon your current product and choose another. (Trust me; I know this can happen.)

In Apple’s case, the danger is that the users could instead adopt a SAMSUNG product.

And these days, that not only means that you lose the sale of the hardware, but you also lose the sale of the services.

It’s important for Apple to support old hardware and retain the service revenue, because not only is its services business growing, but services are more profitable than hardware.

In the fiscal year 2019, Apple’s services business posted gross margins of 63.7%, approaching double the 32.2% gross margin of the company’s product sector. 

If current trends continue, Apple’s services (iCloud, Apple Music, AppleCare, Apple Card, Apple TV+, etc.) will continue to become relatively more important to the company.

The biometric identity industry is moving to a service model also

Incidentally, we’re seeing this in other industries, for example as the biometric identity industry also moves from an on-premise model to a software as a service (SaaS) model. One benefit of cloud-based hosting of biometric identity services is that both software and the underlying hardware can be easily upgraded without having to go to a site, deploying a brand new set of hardware, transferring the data from one set of hardware to the other, and hauling away the old hardware. Instead, all of those activities take place at Amazon, Microsoft, or other data centers with little or no on-premise fuss.

(And, as an added benefit, it’s easier for biometric vendors to keep their current customers because obsolescence becomes less of an issue.)

Is your biometric identity company ready to sell SaaS solutions?

But perhaps your company is just beginning to navigate from on-premise to SaaS. I’ve been through that myself, and can contract with you to provide advice and content. I can wear my biometric content marketing expert hat, or my biometric proposal writing expert hat as needed.

The “T” stands for technology. Or something. By Elred at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Moe_Epsilon., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3812206

Obviously this involves more than just saying “we’re cloud-ready.” Customers don’t care if you’re cloud-ready. Customers only care about the benefits that being cloud-ready provides. And I can help communicate those benefits.

If I can help you communicate the benefits of a cloud-ready biometric identity system, contact me (email, phone message, online form, appointment for a content needs assessment, even snail mail).

My LinkedIn article “Don’t ban facial recognition”

By TapTheForwardAssist – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=98670006

This post serves as a pointer to an article that I just published on LinkedIn, “Don’t ban facial recognition.”

If you’re going to prohibit use of a particular tool, you may want to check the alternatives to that tool to see if the alternatives are better…or worse.

To read the article, go here.

(Bredemarket Premium) The drawbacks of a FOCI-mitigated subsidiary

Those portions of the U.S. government that deal with critical infrastructure are naturally concerned about foreign encroachment into U.S. Government operations, even from “friendly” nations. Therefore, the U.S. Government takes steps to mitigate the effects of “Foreign Ownership, Control or Influence” (FOCI).

I’ve worked for two companies that needed to undertake FOCI mitigation, and I know of others that have also done this. And while FOCI mitigation offers benefits to the United States, there are also drawbacks of which everyone involved should be aware.

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