IDEMIA
IDEMIA is a French multinational company specializing in security and identity solutions, including facial recognition systems and other biometric identification services. Part of Safran group until 2017, Morpho merged with Oberthur Technologies and became OT-Morpho on 31 May 2017, then renamed as IDEMIA on September 28th. Thus, it became one of the world leader in biometric identification systems, secure payments and civil identity solutions.
In December 2018, IDEMIA had more than 13,000 employees and claimed 3 billions of revenues.
Corporate History
From Morpho to IDEMIA
Morpho Systèmes was created in 1982, then absorbed by Sagem in 1993. In 2005, when Safran was created, Sagem became Sagem Défense Sécurité and in 2007, a separate company, Sagem Sécurité was created. It is renamed Morpho in 2010, then Safran Identity & Security in 2016.Morpho acquired several companies through its constitution. In 2005, Sagem Défense Sécurité acquired ORGA Kartensysteme GmbH which would be renamed Sagem Orga, In 2009, Safran acquired 81% of GE Homeland Protection, a wholly owned affiliate of the General Electric Company. On July 26, 2011 Safran completed the acquisition of L-1 Identity Solutions. Today, it is mainly part of MorphoTrust USA Inc. The company itself dates back over 50 years, from the time the first photo was added to a U.S. driver's license. In December 2015 Morpho announced its acquisition of AirTag.
On September 2016, Safran announced that it had entered into exclusive negotiations with Advent International, the owner of Oberthur Technologies since 2011, to sell its identity and security activities and the transaction was finalized on 31 May 2017. Oberthur Technologies and Safran Identity & Security were joining forces to create OT-Morpho, then renamed as IDEMIA on September 28th.
On 15 October 2018 Yann Delabrière replaces Didier Lamouche as Chairman of the Group.
IDEMIA today
The new company became the leader in biometric identification and security, as well as secure payments with the aim of converging technologies developed for the public sector and those for the private sector. The company major customers in the private sector come from banking, telecoms and connected objects.IDEMIA considers that the technologies it develops must enable a fluid customer experience through their ease of use while offering a high level of security. The company has thus developed biometric bank cards where the PIN code is replaced by the user's fingerprint or dynamic security code. Fingerprint technology is currently being tested internally by Société Générale in France and would make it possible to secure contactless payment from the first euro. Fingerprint verification is done directly on the card and no fingerprint-related elements are transmitted to the merchant nor the bank.
Areas of expertise
Identification
This division represents the company's historical core business. It develops the latest state-of-the-art technologies in the field of biometrics.The facial recognition technologies proposed by IDEMIA allow for smooth passage through the airport or stadium entrances and are also used to spot people banned from the stadium, identify fugitives in crowds or check the identity of people entering reserved areas. The company has many references in the police field: FBI, Interpol, NYPD; or in the civil field: United States, United Arab Emirates, Albania, or India with the Aadhaar project whose objective is to provide a unique 12-digit number to each Indian citizen after enrolment of their biometric data allowing these citizens to open a bank account, access microcredit or receive social benefits.
IDEMIA produced 3 billion identity documents worldwide in 2018. On the market of states and government services, IDEMIA participates in particular in the efforts of the United Nations Organisation to give everyone an identity by 2030. For example, IDEMIA is leading a pilot project in the Democratic Republic of Congo which proposes a technological solution that allows the biometric registration of parents with photos and fingerprints, the transfer of the information to the central system and the attribution of a unique number.
Identification technologies are also used by IDEMIA to offer services for houses. The technology behind these systems is based on algorithms that create a unique code for each user based on their bioidentifiers—mapping the ridges and whorls of a fingertip or counting the pixels between a set of eyes. That code can then be matched against the real thing in a split second when the user touches a scanner, looks at a digital camera or waves a hand.
Border Management
Morpho was a specialist in airport border solutions, these solutions are now carried by IDEMIA. Based on biometrics, the company offers semi-automated or automated solutions that enable a person's biometrics to be associated with that of his or her identity document, such as the MorphoWay solution. In France, the airports of Paris and Marseille Provence are equipped with the PARAFE solution, which allows anyone with a biometric passport or who has previously registered to pass through an automatic gate to cross French borders.Banking
Following the merger of Oberthur's "electronic payment" and Morpho's "digital identification" services, IDEMIA developed solutions to improve the bank card, a product that is historically French in its origins. Thus the company carries out research in its Vitré centre, such as the implementation of fingerprint recognition in the 0.8 millimeter thickness of a card or the dynamic change of the visual cryptogram. In addition, the company has integrated the marketing aspect of its production into Vitré and is able to manufacture custom cards in small series adapted to each of its customers, including cards made with recycled plastic.Public safety projects
IDEMIA presented at the Milipol exhibition in Villepinte in 2019, a system integrating images from surveillance cameras, GoPro type cameras embedded in police vests and images from surveillance drones that allows to follow the situation on a demonstration site. If a suspicious individual is spotted, the system indicates the time it takes for deployed officers to arrive on site. In the event of a leak, it makes it possible to estimate in real time the area where the suspect is located and to order the roadblocks necessary to apprehend him.Operations in the United States
IDEMIA provides products to various federal and state government entities in the United States and is the leader provider in the issuance of driver's licences.IDEMIA owns IdentoGO, a company that operates hundreds of storefronts in the United States which offer "state of the art electronic fingerprint capture capabilities as well as other identity-related products and services." IdentoGO is an authorized service provider for the United States federal government, and as such provides identity verification services for multiple Transportation Security Administration programs, including TSA PreCheck and the Transportation Worker Identification Credential.
In Massachusetts, the Registry of Motor Vehicles has been using IDEMIA's face recognition technology to run scans against the database of driver's license photos since 2006.
In Florida, the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office has been using IDEMIA's software in their Face Analysis Comparison & Examination System since 2001.
Concerns
Sharing sensitive biometric data
Various civil rights organizations have criticized the government's contracts with IDEMIA, expressing concerns about sharing sensitive biometric data with a private and unregulated third-party company. Researchers have also found that facial verification and identification algorithms, including IDEMIA's algorithm specifically, exhibit systematic racial and gender bias.Bribery
Another concern is the presence of Marwan Lahoud as a President or member of the board of different entities of the group, since 2017.Marwan Lahoud left abruptly AIRBUS in February 2017, without notice, and is deeply involved in the scandal of corruption which hit AIRBUS.
The Financial Times publishes an article on January 31, 2020 "Airbus ran 'massive' bribery scheme to win orders" in which he is mentioned, with a photo of him with this subtitle: "Marwan Lahoud, who led the strategy organization and marketing of Airbus, SMO, a division dedicated to securing sales in emerging markets and at the heart of a catalog of offenses."
In January 2020, the French press announced that the French, British and American courts had validated the agreements made earlier this week by Airbus and the French National Financial Prosecutor's Office, the British Serious Fraud Office and the Department of Justice in the United States, under which the European group AIRBUS recognises the fraud and briberies, and undertakes to pay fines totalling 3.6 billion euros: 2.08 billion in France as part of a public interest legal agreement, 984 million in the United Kingdom and 526 million in the United States.
Today dissolved, the group's unit called Strategy and Marketing Organization, led by Marwan Lahoud, was at the heart of the matter.
Almost all the articles published on these agreements underline that the ex-leaders may be worried within the framework of a preliminary investigation still in progress.
The agreement signed with SFO and the DoJ, which also gives details on the corrupting and fraud mechanisms used in 20 corruption cases, are accessible and .
In 2012, Safran was fined €50,000 by a French court for bribing public officials in Nigeria to win a €170 million contract in 2000/03 to produce identity cards.