The British government has advised that schools will not be able to use students’ biometric data unless parents consent, reports politics.co.uk.

The government’s advice, released on Tuesday for consultation, was updated to include items from the newly enacted Freedoms Act 2012. This new advice will take effect in September 2013. 

The state of Georgia has enlisted the help of LexisNexis to start a pilot program that utilizes identity verification and authentication tools to combatting tax fraud, reports Accounting Today.

The pilot program launched this past January using LexisNexis’ Tax Refund Investigative Solution, which employs identity-based filters to screen tax refund requests against LexisNexis’ database of identity records. The results found that two percent of all tax returns filed were potentially fraudulent and prevented millions of dollars being lost to fraudulent refunds in 2011. 

The U.S. government’s Advanced Analytic Capabilities Subgroup of the Technical Support Working Group (TSWG) has awarded a research and development contract to voice biometrics technology provider Agnitio Corp. to speed up development and deliver an improved capabilities for voice biometrics-based mobile phone security.

During the span of the contract, Agnitio will put its mobile voice authentication technology into different kinds of mobile devices and operating systems. With the new technology, users will be able to securely authenticate themselves remotely. Employees will also be able to use mobile devices in field tactical operations to identify persons of interest.

Further details of the contract were not disclosed.  

Sensor supplier Fingerprint Cards AB (FPC) has extended its partnership with Chinese biometrics provider Miaxis Biometrics Co. LTD to deliver biometrics products to the Chinese banking sector.

Miaxis is using FPC’s FPC1011F silicon-based sensor in its fingerprint. Banks use these readers to fight fraud in bank teller applications, loan management, inter-bank payment systems, physical money transportations, bank server management, Internet banking, employee time and attendance and physical access to facilities. 

New passport-reading and biometrics technology installed at Dubai International Airport is catching increasing numbers of people who attempt to enter the country with fake identity documents, reports the Gulf News.

Last year, the Expertise Centre Identity and Fraud Documents (ECIFD) agency caught 1,137 forged documents with its passport readers. Although passports and identity documents are getting more difficult to forge, criminals are now attempting to get into the country by committing “look-alike fraud,” or looking like the person in the document. 

Startup iCache has developed a mobile wallet solution for the iPhone that enables users consolidate all of their payment, loyalty and membership cards onto one smart card.

The protective Geode case, priced at $199, features a magnetic stripe reader that enables users to input their payment card info on the free Geode app. From there, users can program the Geode’s smart card, the GeoCard, which fits into a sleeve on the back of the case, to temporarily act as any other the cards stored in the Geode app. The user simply opens the app, chooses which card they want to pay with, and swipes the GeoCard. 

Vision-Box, a biometrics solutions provider, has come out with an automatic border control e-gate that supports multimodal biometric authentication.

This new e-gate is a thin system that contains vb i-match, a single sourced design that is modular and flexible and can be adapted to business requirements and infrastructure constraints that would otherwise disrupt passenger flow. It has the ability to cope with industry standards such as ICAO. The e-gate supports iris, fingerprint and facial biometrics.