Europe is Looking At More Than Just Biometric Testing

A little more detail, courtesy EU Brussels, regarding the policy brief published by the EU Innovation Hub for Internal Security, coordinated by eu-LISA together with the European Commission, Europol and Frontex.

As I noted earlier today, one proposal is for Europe to perform its own independent biometric testing, reducing Europe’s dependence on the American National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

“The second is a centralised evaluation and testing platform connected to that repository, allowing standardised, independent and continuous assessment of biometric technologies, including benchmarking across vendors.”

But if there is a second proposal (European testing) in the cited European biometric policy brief, there must also be a first proposal—one I failed to discuss this morning.

“The first is a common EU biometric data repository containing datasets that comply with European rules, reflect the demographics and use-cases relevant to EU authorities and are stored in a secure environment.”

Makes sense. If you are going to test you need test data. And NIST has no obligation to ensure its test data complies with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). The subjects in NIST test databases rarely provided the “explicit consent” mentioned in GDPR, and the “right to erasure” from a NIST database is…laughable.

Yes, it’s extremely challenging to construct a testing database that complies with GDPR.

And NIST certainly ain’t gonna do it.

Will a European entity construct it?

And if the right to erasure is maintained, how will you maintain historical consistency of test results?

Modem Replacement Part Four

Also see parts one, two, and three.

I intentionally waited two days to write this. Let’s pick up the story from Monday.

Monday afternoon

The second technician arrived at my house and ended up replacing ALL the cabling between the utility pole and the (new) modem. Among other issues, there was water in the cable. And I don’t need to be a coaxial product marketing expert to know that water in a cable is not a good thing.

Oh yeah: coaxial. Because my internet network is NOT a fiber network. It’s a hybrid network that starts as fiber, but then becomes coaxial for “the last mile.”

And this is relevant, because even after he re-cabled everything, he said there was an amplifier issue down the street. If I had been on fiber, there would be no need for a nearby amplifier.

And no, he wasn’t talking about a Spinal Tap amplifier.

From a November 2025 post.

I prompted Google Gemini for an explanation of network amplifiers, but I’m not going to reprint it here. Suffice it to say that the ISP needed to perform some work, but it wasn’t customer-facing work, was apparently super-secret work, and I would never be informed when the work was done. I was then told that if I still had problems on Friday (4 days later) NOT to contact the ISP’s regular support line, but to instead call his boss directly.

The tech restarted the modem at 2:55 pm.

He left at 3:13 pm.

My wi-fi went down at 3:29 pm.

Tuesday

It had been a week since my wi-fi started failing, And since the second technician had left on Monday afternoon, the wi-fi hadn’t stayed up for more than 45 minutes at a time. I finally gave up trying.

Then I disobeyed instructions.

  • Early Tuesday morning I texted “the boss.” No answer.
  • Then I called the boss. No answer.
  • By early afternoon I contacted my ISP, but not for customer support. I called the “Retention Department.” Yeah, the department that you call to cancel your service.

The man I spoke to had no visibility into the scheduling of our local amplifier repair, but he promised someone would call me back within the hour.

A woman called me 20 minutes later. She had no visibility into the super-secret amplifier repair schedule either.

She asked if the second technician had reported the issue to maintenance or construction. I didn’t know. Turns out this is critical information; if construction had to get involved, city permits would be required before construction could even begin. Who knows how long that would take.

But she had a solution.

  • Send a third technician out.
  • Have the third technician tell me whether they would report the issue to maintenance or construction.
  • If it was maintenance, then the super-secret group would perform maintenance. Maybe by Friday. Maybe later.

I kept my mouth shut, but this sounded like a colossal waste of time. As you will see, it wasn’t.

After I got off the phone I made a decision. Since this problem was going to persist until the ISP fixed it—or I got a new ISP—I was going to have to work around it. So I set up a TV table in front of the love seat next to the modem, then moved my laptop to the TV table. That way if my laptop lost wi-fi I could immediately restart the modem, and hopefully my laptop soul reconnect to wi-fi and I wouldn’t lose anything.

So here’s how THAT worked out:

  • Tuesday afternoon 2:01 pm: Set up laptop near the modem.
  • 2:21 pm: I lost wi-fi while submitting an online form.
  • 2:26 pm: After a modem restart, successfully submitted the online form.
  • 2:44 pm: I lost wi-fi while in mail.
  • 2:50 pm: After a modem restart, I refreshed my mail tab and everything appeared.
  • 5:30 pm: By this point I had enjoyed uninterrupted wi-fi for over two hours. I had stopped working on my laptop and was writing a Bredemarket blog post on my phone (like I am doing right now).
  • 5:50 pm: I lost wi-fi and restarted the modem.
  • 6:03 pm: There was an election in the city of Ontario that day, so I left the house to vote.
  • 6:30 pm: By the time I returned, the wi-fi was down.

A pain, but I could limp along. But by that time I was done working for the night.

Me for several days. Google Gemini.

Wednesday morning

After a few modem restarts during the night, I restarted it at 7:11 am and started working at 7:29. (Incidentally, I highly recommend Toggl Track.)

I got a lot of work done until 10:00 am, when I lost wi-fi while working on a file in OneDrive.

I restarted the modem and made sure OneDrive synced, then worked merrily along until losing wi-fi at 10:22 while working on a Bredemarket client PowerPoint.

I lost wi-fi again at 10:28.

And 11:09.

And 11:26.

But by that time the third technician was on his way.

Wednesday afternoon

I was under the impression that the third technician would climb the utility pole, check the signal-to-noise ratio issue on the amplifier (but he called it a node rather than an amplifier), and go from there.

But that isn’t what he did. He brought his test equipment into the house and started running the (new) modem and (new) router signals through the test equipment.

But he had some news for me.

“The node has improved already, so someone has been here.”

So the super-secret people had completed their mission. Now what?

The technician kept testing. 20 minutes later:

“Coax looking good.”

He was mostly testing in the house, but also testing in the backyard and running to his truck. Ten minutes later:

“The signal’s good.”

Eventually I noticed that he had grabbed a new modem from his truck, but I assumed it was only for testing.

By 12:59 he had to leave for his state-mandated lunch break, but before he left he restarted the modem one more time. He said he’d check it when he returned from lunch.

So I ate lunch myself, although Bredemarket is not subject to state work break requirements.

When he returned at 2 the wi-fi was still up. That’s when he told me that he HAD replaced my new modem (which the ISP store gave me a week ago) with an even newer modem (from his truck). Apparently the connection from the utility pole to the coax cable end was fine, and the connection from the Ethernet cable end to the router was fine, but the new modem itself had issues that the even newer modem didn’t have.

He left, and the wi-fi went down…

…actually it didn’t. As I write this I have enjoyed wi-fi for over 50 hours without interruption.

I even moved my laptop back to the Bredemarket world headquarters.

And if you’ve read all the way to the end of this post, this is actually the SHORT version. Trust me.

The really short version

My summary of what happened between Tuesday March 17 and Wednesday March 25 between two ISP store visits, three technician visits, and countless support chats and calls:

  1. 2 modem replacements 3/18 (new modem), 3/25 (even newer modem).
  2. 1 router replacement 3/20 (not counting my second Google router 3/19).
  3. 2 cable replacements 3/23 (black cable from pole to southeast corner of house, white cable from there to modem in northeast corner of house).
  4. 1 apparent node fix (date unknown, maybe 3/24 or 3/25) to fix signal to noise ratio SNR issue.

And yes, this started with a modem replacement and ended (hopefully) with a modem re-replacement.

Why Would Europe Perform Its Own Biometric Testing?

I’ve seen two articles about a possible move by Europe to set up a Europe-wide biometric testing agency, bypassing the need for National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) biometric testing.

One reason is that a European-controlled testing methodology can incorporate European regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

A second related reason for Europe to bypass NIST biometric testing is that U.S. government agencies, including NIST and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), naturally place prime importance on American interests.

Remember when the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party complained that the FBI Certified Products List contained Chinese biometric vendors (the Certified Communist Products List)?

  • Wait until they discover all the Chinese companies that participate in NIST testing.
  • And wait until someone in the legislative or executive branches decides that the FBI or NIST shouldn’t list products from other countries deemed unfriendly to the United States. Denmark? Germany? France?

For these reasons, Europe may be compelled to set up its own biometric testing organization.

And so may China.

TSA ConfirmID is NOT $18

Remember when people were told that REAL ID would be mandatory? Beginning on whatever date REAL ID became mandatory…it became mandatory. If you didn’t have REAL ID, or another acceptable form of identification (AFOID), you weren’t getting on that plane. (Among other things.)

Well, that was a lie.

As I noted in December, the Transportation Security Administration was officially allowing an alternative acceptable form of identification (AAFOID???). An item ran in the Federal Register with this text:

“The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is launching a modernized alternative identity verification program for individuals who present at the TSA checkpoint without the required acceptable form of identification (AFOID), such as a REAL ID or passport. This modernized program provides an alternative that may allow these individuals to gain access to the sterile area of an airport if TSA is able to establish their identity.”

But there was going to be a fee.

“To address the government-incurred costs, individuals who choose to use TSA’s modernized alternative identity verification program will be required to pay an $18 fee.”

Well, that was a lie. (Yes, “Lyin’ Eyes” is still on my mind.)

Here’s a quote from TSA’s February 5 press release:

“Passengers without REAL IDs or other acceptable forms of identification have the option to use TSA ConfirmID by paying a $45 fee for a 10-day travel period.”

For those who are math-challenged, $45 is over twice as much as $18.

TSA’s hope of course is that if the law won’t force you to get a REAL ID, money will.

On DOJ/DoD/DHS ABIS Interoperability

The image at the top of this post was taken from the NIST website and is a from an interoperability slide in a 2016 FBI presentation. Although the reference to “IAFIS” suggests that the image was created long before 2016. No NGI, and no HART either.

Because—while this may make some uncomfortable—biometric interoperability between the Departments of Defense, Homeland Security, and Justice is critically important.

For years after 9/11, the (then) systems from the three Departments were NOT interoperable.

Which made it difficult to identify if a military person or citizenship applicant was a criminal.

Today, while the three current systems use three different data interchange standards (based upon work by NIST), they CAN talk to each other.

We just have to ensure that the interoperability is legal and proper.

De-Sora

I first mentioned OpenAI’s Sora last October in connection with the privacy concerns of its Cameo feature. Does Cameo create an innocuous likeness, or an evil deepfake?

As it turns out, neither. Sora is going to the tech graveyard.

From https://x.com/soraofficialapp/status/2036546752535470382

We’re saying goodbye to the Sora app. To everyone who created with Sora, shared it, and built community around it: thank you. What you made with Sora mattered, and we know this news is disappointing.

We’ll share more soon, including timelines for the app and API and details on preserving your work. – The Sora Team

The March 25, 2026 List of PAD 3 Conforming Solutions

Update to the March 3 version. Added Oz Forensics.

VendorModalityConfirming LabLink/Date
AwareFaceBixeLabNovember 2025
FaceTecFaceBixeLabOctober 2025
IncodeFaceiBetaFebruary 2026
Oz ForensicsFaceBixeLabMarch 2026
ParavisionFaceIngeniumSeptember 2025
YotiFaceiBetaJanuary 2026

Surviving Without Electricity or Internet

I wrote this over two years ago.

How long can you survive without pizza? Years (although your existence will be hellish). 

OK, how long can you survive without water? From 3 days to 7 days. 

OK, how long can you survive without oxygen? Only 10 minutes.

But let’s look at two other items: electricity, and the Internet.

These two items are similar to the pizza item above; lack of them won’t result in immediate death. Even a lack of electricity is survivable: although you could lose air conditioning on 100° F days, historical people survived without electricity, and 750 million people do so today. Including temporary losses of electricity, such as a whole-day blackout in a part of the Philippines.

As for the Internet…it’s complicated.


From https://www.yourtango.com/201168184/facebook-relationship-status-what-does-its-complicated-mean.

The number of people without Internet access is 2.5 billion. They are surviving…with challenges. But school connectivity can bring positive benefits.

An Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report underscores the importance of school connectivity in enhancing learning outcomes and boosting economies. The report found that in the least developed countries, a 10% increase in school connectivity can improve children’s effective years of schooling by 0.6% and increase GDP per capita by 1.1%.

I’ve previously looked at the business world. Specifically my business, which is heavily dependent on the Internet (as my current Internet Service Provider issues attest). While blogs are meaningless in a world without Internet, Bredemarket could still conduct business.

Even if the Internet were to disappear, I could still write text for case studies (maintaining my Inland Empire case study writing business) and white papers. I could send my client a Microsoft Word file (perhaps an old version of Word), and the firm could send the file to their printer. But how would I send the file? Put a CD in the mail?

Life without Internet would be much more difficult.

And a final question: how many of us would run into difficulty if generative AI were to go away?