Photo used for illustrative purposes.

The UAE Government announced that it would 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 realising 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 His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President, Prime Minister and 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 centres. The registration process use to take 20 minutes and registrants had to visit government services centres.

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.

On the other hand, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has announced the launch of the updated version of the e-refund system for service fees and transactions for federal entities. The updated version provides new features that facilitate and expedite the procedures of refunding fees for all federal entities.

Saeed Rashid Al Yateem, Assistant Under-Secretary of Resources and Budget Sector at the Ministry, noted that launching the updated version comes within the ministry’s endeavours to provide comprehensive and integrated financial services that satisfy customers. This promotes the UAE’s leading financial system at regional and international levels, and reiterates the country’s standing on global competitiveness indices.

The updated version of the e-refund system allows customers to login using a secured unified code from the ministry’s website. This allows customers to log in to the service using MoF’s website or via the digital ID (UAE PASS). The new system also provides the "dispute management" feature that enables customers to review the request’s status according to the request number upon its completion.