The Biometric Update Podcast

Host Joel McConvey talks with Irene Hernandez (Gataca) and Andy Lulhum (VerifyMy) about evolving online safety laws across Europe and the UK. Topics include the EU Kids Act, the EUDI wallet and anonymous age proofs, debates over facial age estimation, and country-by-country rollout challenges. Lulham also discusses a new UK law criminalizing realistic depictions of strangulation and incest in onli...

She has 25 years of prognosticating in the identity industry. What did she get right? Joel McConvey speaks with industry veteran C. Maxine Most about Acuity Market Intelligence’s Sunday Brief — a 25-year audit of past predictions — and lessons learned from scoring her own forecasts. They also discuss the Deepfake Summit’s warning about trust in the age of synthetic media and agentic AI, the need t...

Host Joel McConvey interviews Pindrop CEO Vijay Balasubramanian about the rising danger of AI-generated deepfakes: how they’re used in political ads, robocalls and scams, and the threat they pose to trust ahead of the U.S. midterm elections. The episode also covers findings from the 2026 Deepfake Summit and Interpol’s awareness campaign, and explains why continuous authentication, agent governance...

Host Joel McConvey interviews industry leaders on the governance challenges common to digital credentials and agentic AI. Cameron Walker-Miller of the SIA discusses mobile credential standards, interoperability, privacy trade-offs, and security best practices for protecting access systems. Evin McMullen of Amantrue explains agent passports, border controls, and cryptographic audit trails designed...

A concise exploration of what makes AI an "agent," how terminology shapes governance, and the practical risks and safeguards -- covering MCP, autonomy, rogue agents, and why defining terms matters for authentication and regulation.

Part one of the After September series features Janice Kephart, a key author of the 9/11 Commission report, who explains how the September 11 attacks reshaped travel policy over the last 25 years — from passport rules and Real ID to the rise of biometrics and identity verification at the border. The episode looks at successes and remaining gaps: how biometrics have improved air travel safety, chal...

Alexandre Kech, CEO of GLEIF, discusses using verifiable Legal Entity Identifier (vLEI) and open standards to govern AI agents, ensure cryptographic delegation of authority, and create auditable chains of trust for agentic commerce.  

Major changes in the regulatory world are paving the way for digital identity. Will Fall 2026 be looked back on as a tipping point for digital ID? In this episode, host Joel McConvey and Biometric Update Managing Editor Chris Burt offer a survey of how regulatory and operational approaches have set the stage for a global shift. 

Changes to the UK's Mandatory Licensing Conditions for alcohol sales have been promised for years. This month, the bill passed; now all that's left is to sign it into law. But that's just the legislation. Yoti's Group Product Manager, Emily Hyett, joins the Biometric Update to talk implementation, trust and what the identity sector can expect. 

Tony Allen of the Age Check Certification Scheme (ACCS) and Julian Corbett of the OpenAge initiative join the Biometric Update Podcast to discuss reusable age checks, certification, and the path to trust for online age assurance. 

FIDO Alliance Executive Director and CEO Andrew Shikiar discusses how the Alliance's work on passkeys is helping it draw a map for digital credentials, wallet certification and agentic frameworks, as identity shifts from a point-in-time model to continuous trust. 

HarmonEyes is bringing its eye movement tracking tech into the age assurance space. In this episode, CEO Adam Gross discusses how the technology works, why it's trustworthy, and why the identity market is a target for growth for a company that has built its reputation in other sectors. 

In 2026, synthetic media is everywhere, and deepfake detection has become an essential part of a layered security stack. In this episode, Identy's Jesus Aragon sketches out the scale of the deepfake fraud problem, and Resemble.ai's Zohaib Ahmed explains the tech behind the company's newly launched DETECT world model detection tool. 

Veridas CEO Eduardo Azanza discusses the company's recent merger with Fourthline in the context of an industry shift toward consolidated identity services. 

Age assurance is everywhere. Around the world, legislators are exploriong how to regulate age-restricted products and services online. The debate is moving fast – so fast, that it can be  hard to follow everything.    This episode of the biometric update podcast goes deep on age assurance regulation – what’s happening where, what it means for organizations and individuals, and how changing laws ar...

How much would you let a machine do for you? How much would you let it do autonomously, on your behalf? These are the questions driving a growing market for identity governance that applies to AI agents, as well as humans.  Today’s episode features an interview with Alice Sesay Pope, author of The Trust Algorithm: How Leaders Build Trust in Generative AI. After we hear from Alice, Biometric Update...

The Biometric Update Podcast's 50th episode looks at what's changed since we launched in April 2025, from fraud tools to age checks to the agentic economy. 

Imprivata CEO Fran Rosch is an identity veteran who has watched the sector cycle and transform over decades. As agentic AI enters the healthcare space, Rosch reflects on how the existing toolkit has prepared organizations for the moment - and why change has to happen fast. 

Part 2 of the Biometric Update Podcast's coverage of the 2026 ID4Africa AGM features BU managing editor reporting from the conference floor, in conversation with representatives from Cognitec, Thales, Iris ID and Regula. Their combined observations and insights are essential listening for anyone interested in Africa's ongoing journey toward a world-leading digital identity ecosystem. 

The 2026 ID4Africa AGM took place in Abidjan, Côte d'Ivoire in May, and Biometric Update was on location to cover all the latest developments in the African identity sector. Part 1 of our special coverage features Biometric Update Managing Editor Chris Burt's conversation with Dr. Joseph Atick, executive chairman of ID4Africa, about the present and future of the continent's digital identity ecosys...

Claire Ma is the co-founder of Sign, a company building identity infrastructure and verifiable credential systems for government digital ID programs. From India to Africa to the UK, digital identity is on the governmental agenda. On this episode of the Biometric Update Podcast, Claire Ma discusses how AI, public trust and digital infrastructure all play a role in shaping the global ecosystem. 

If you’re in Illinois, and you’re facing class action litigation, who you gonna call? Daniel Saeedi. He’s a bona fide BIPA buster with the Biometric Privacy Team at Blank Rome, with more than 50 biometric privacy cases under his belt. On this episode of the Biometric Update Podcast, Dan discusses what's changed with BIPA and what hasn't, and how organizations can ensure they stay on the right side...

Valentin Vasilyev is the Chief Technology Officer of Fingerprint. After creating Fingerprint.js, he established a company to specialize in browser fingerprinting. In this episode, Vallentin Vasilyev discusses the sweeping changes wrought by AI agents, and how his tech can help. 

On top of her work for Idemia Public Security North America and frequent speaking appearances, Teresa Wu led the creation of the SIA's new Corporate Credential Design Guide, which establishes a unified, vendor-neutral framework for designing secure, interoperable, and user-friendly corporate credentials. In this episode, Teresa Wu talks about how the guide came to be, who it's for - and why she de...

David Crack, chair of the Association of Document Verification Professionals (ADVP) has been busy advocating for providers verified under the Digital Verification Service trust framework. He says the DVS only exists because of the work of Phil Booth, national co-ordinator of the influential NO2ID campaign. On this episode of the Biometric Podcast, Crack and Booth debate what a good digital ID look...