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Welcome to ID Tech’s digest of identity industry news. Here’s what you need to know about the world of digital identity and biometrics today:

France Passes Under 15 Social Media Ban with Age Check Details Unresolved

French lawmakers have approved legislation banning social media platforms for children under fifteen, with initial enforcement scheduled for September 2026. The bill gives platforms until January 2027 to identify and terminate non-compliant youth accounts across the country. However, parliament removed specific technical mandates for how age verification must be conducted, leaving privacy regulator CNIL to establish technical guidance and evaluate available age-check solutions. The legal gap leaves social networks operating in France facing strict compliance deadlines without a single mandatory framework to verify minor ages while protecting user privacy.

OneSpan Announces Unified DigiPassOne Authentication Platform

Cybersecurity provider OneSpan has launched DigiPassOne, a unified cloud application designed to combine its identity verification, transaction signing, and authentication software portfolio into a single platform. The framework integrates OneSpan’s legacy DigiPass hardware authenticators, mobile application security, and FIDO2 passkey credentials alongside risk analytics engines. Built primarily for banking and financial services, the software enables enterprise organizations to orchestrate multi-factor authentication policies, reduce fraud, and transition toward passwordless workflows without replacing backend legacy systems to streamline digital banking security and compliance.

US Lawmaker Seeks Government Wide Audit of IDEMIA Identity Contracts

United States Representative Josh Gottheimer has formally requested that the General Services Administration and the Office of Management and Budget conduct a comprehensive audit of all federal contracts held by identity firm IDEMIA. The congressional request follows a software glitch at New Jersey’s Motor Vehicle Commission that inappropriately registered non-citizens to vote during driver’s license transactions. Highlighting IDEMIA’s contracts across federal agencies including TSA PreCheck, FBI background checks, and state DMV programs, the request seeks to evaluate vendor performance and vendor concentration risks across critical public sector identity infrastructure.

Albania Opens E2 4 Million Tender for Police Biometric Center

The Ministry of Interior of Albania has opened a 2.4 million euro public procurement tender to build a centralized biometric and data processing center for the Albanian State Police. The national facility is designed to modernize state law enforcement databases, upgrading automated fingerprint identification systems (AFIS) and facial matching software to accelerate criminal investigations. By unifying regional police networks under a single high-security data hub, the ministry aims to strengthen national law enforcement capabilities, improve cross-border security tracking, and align regional police infrastructure with European Union law enforcement technical standards.

EU Registers Citizens Initiative Opposing Mandatory Digital ID and Age Checks

The European Commission has officially registered a European Citizens’ Initiative petition titled “Stop Mandatory Digital ID and Online Age Checks,” organized by digital rights advocates. The movement opposes EU policy mandates requiring European Digital Identity (EUDI) Wallets and automated age-verification systems for accessing online platforms, arguing that mandatory digital credentials introduce severe tracking risks and eliminate internet anonymity. The registration allows campaign organizers to begin collecting one million signatures from citizens across at least seven EU member states, which would require the Commission to formally respond and determine whether to proposing legislative changes to protect digital privacy and anonymous internet access.

Thames Valley Police Plans Fourth Slough Facial Recognition Deployment of 2026

Thames Valley Police has announced its fourth live facial recognition deployment in Slough during 2026, targeting high-density public areas during scheduled field operations. Mobile camera systems will scan passing crowds in real time to match facial geometry against a specific police watchlist of wanted individuals and suspect profiles. While the police department highlighted that non-matching biometric data is immediately destroyed and cited past operational successes in arresting wanted suspects, privacy advocates continue to question the expansion of live biometric surveillance across public spaces.

SwiftConnect Acquires HID SAFE to Combine Mobile Access with Identity Governance

Workplace access platform SwiftConnect has acquired HID SAFE, the physical identity and access management (PIAM) software business from HID Global. The strategic acquisition combines HID SAFE’s enterprise governance, policy compliance, and visitor management capabilities with SwiftConnect’s mobile credential provisioning platform. The unified technology platform allows enterprise real estate operators and corporate IT departments to automate physical access permissions, issue mobile wallet credentials, and manage policy enforcement across complex building footprints to unify physical security management and mobile access.

Human Tech Launches Zero Knowledge Identity and Compliance SDK for Aztec

Privacy technology company Human Tech has launched a zero-knowledge identity and compliance Software Development Kit (SDK) built specifically for the Aztec network, a privacy-focused layer-2 blockchain. The software suite enables Web3 developers and decentralized finance applications to enforce mandatory Anti-Money Laundering (AML), age verification, and sanction checks directly within user wallets without revealing personal identification data on-chain. By using zero-knowledge cryptographic proofs to validate compliance rules locally, the tool enables Web3 applications to satisfy strict regulatory obligations while preserving complete user data privacy on public blockchains.

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By the ID Tech Editorial Team