Singapore has inked a deal with British vendor iProov to provide face verification technology used in the Asian country's national digital identity system. Already launched as a pilot earlier this year, the feature allows SingPass users to access e-government services via a biometric, bypassing the need for passwords.
The agreement also sees Singapore-based digital government services specialist, Toppan, involved in the deployment of the facial verification technology. Both vendors were selected following an open tender issued by Government Technology Agency (GovTech) and months of user tests, the companies said in a joint statement Tuesday.
iProov's Genuine Presence Assurance[1] technology is touted to have the ability to determine if an individual's face is an actual person, and not a photograph, mask or digital spoof, and authenticate that it is not a deepfake[2] or injected video. Its agreement with the Singapore government also is the first time the vendor's cloud facial verification technology is used to secure a country's national digital identity[3].
It gives four million SingPass users the option to authenticate their identity with the biometric scan on their computers or at kiosks. Citizens use their SingPass account to log into and access 500 digital services provided by more than 180 government agencies as well as commercial entities[4], such as banks.
Local bank DBS in July collaborated with GovTech to pilot the use of the face verification[5] technology as part of efforts to speed up digital banking registration. The service enabled customers to sign up for DBS' digital banking services without having to use their ATM, credit, or debit card, and pin to complete the verification process to activate their accounts.
They would need to select SingPass Face Verification through the bank's mobile app when signing up