DUBAI — The government in the United Arab Emirates announced that it will employ biometric face recognition (Facial ID) to register customers in the "UAE Pass" application, as part of its plan to launch the first safe digital national ID for citizens and residents.

The UAE Pass app is the first national digital identity and signature solution that enables users to identify themselves to government service providers in all emirates through a smartphone-based authentication. It also enables users to sign documents digitally with a high level of security. The app serves the UAE’s government goals in realizing digital transformation and eliminating paper transactions.

Facial ID is a smart technology that the government aims to employ in various sectors, to benefit from its advantages and enhance public and private sector services.

The UAE government, which leads the world’s governments in adopting biometric facial recognition technology, aims to facilitate the lives of community members and offer them an easy, fast, and efficient customer experience, by enabling them to access digital government services. Currently, the number of people registered on the UAE Pass app is over 1.38 million, including 628,000 individuals with verified accounts.

Mohamed bin Taliah, chief of government services at the UAE government, stated that the adoption of advanced concepts, tools, and proactive services that facilitate the lives of all segments of the community reflects the sustainable approach of the UAE government, and embodies the directives of UAE Vice President and Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, who is also the ruler of Dubai, to adopt services that exceed customers’ expectations.

Hamad Obaid Al-Mansoori, head of the UAE digital government and director-general of the telecommunications and digital government regulatory authority, said that the use of facial recognition technology in the registration process of the Digital ID app is a key step towards the implementation of emerging technologies based on artificial intelligence (AI), to establish a digital lifestyle in the UAE. He also lauded the efforts of the project’s teams.

With the use of biometric facial recognition in the Digital ID application, a verified account may be created in less than five minutes without the need to visit government services centers. The registration process use to take 20 minutes and registrants had to visit government services centers.

The application enables customers to safely enter all government and quasi-governmental websites and applications and benefit from over 6,000 services provided by over 130 government, quasi-governmental, federal, and local authorities. — WAM