Veintree Ethical Biometrics

50 million children worldwide are uprooted, and more than half a million are on the move, exposed to several risks on their journeys such as trafficking, exploitation and abuse. Following them until their final destination is terribly challenging.

Veintree offers to solve problems related to children identification by using hand scanning authentication based on tamper-proof physical elements unrelated to civil registration. The technology makes it possible to generate codes based on the unique venous networks of the hands. This technology is highly reliable compared to facial recognition, iris identification and all other current solutions on the market.
On a human scale, this technology will identify and differentiate human beings without having to give them a name.
It creates different identity codes for different application uses and guarantees the privacy of personal data by preventing the reunification of databases.
It is the basis of the authentication necessary for the dematerialization of human activities.

Terre des Hommes (TdH) ensure migrating children's access to theirs rights. TdH participate in a Consortium to address the authentication of migrants in camps and on the move. The question involves discovering how to improve the present and the future of hundreds of thousands of children, for whom mobility has become a necessary step in the absence of a developmental perspective capable of changing their daily lives.

No matter why children migrate. TdH advocates with public authorities and supports state authorities in the development and implementation of appropriate laws, policies and mechanisms.

The TdH registration data are analyzed with a view to improving the quality of protection and informing decision-makers, but currently the data collected is neither anonymous nor reliable. It cannot be extended to other aspects of Primary Healthcare and cannot be shared between a network of refugee camps and migration routes, which is the source of inconsistency.
We want to start gradually with the registration of migrants, extend Authentication as a Service to their community and along the migration routes to allow the camp administration and NGOs to use traceability and Artificial Intelligence technologies (digital twin) to define the conditions and costs of migration, regardless ethnicity, gender and age.

More than half a million children worldwide are moving (alone or accompanied) or affected by migration. Their mobility is often due to human rights violations. Mobility can create opportunities, bring safety and provide access to services for many children. But it can also mean new risks and vulnerabilities They can be separated from their families, detained because of their migration status and deprived of protection and services. Policies and laws are all too often inadequate in protecting them and upholding their rights.

Supporting and protecting all children on the move, throughout their journeys by ensuring the effective existence of formal and informal services at all stages along the route and setting up mechanisms of protective accompaniment request managing identification data along the routes and in the camps.

But identification may be unreliable or dangerous for them. Managing the data anonymously will allow the NGOs administration to expand registration in order to define conditions and protection as well as services guaranteeing the participation of the children and their family and/or community in the analysis of the children’s situation, to implement the best protective solutions identified and providing beneficiaries with follow-up in their medical record and vaccination status for example.

In the camp and on the route, the migrant children and population has the possibility of seeking care from mobile triage clinics and primary and secondary centers.
We wish to offer beneficiaries access to healthcare and services in a controlled and recorded manner. We wish to demonstrate the simplicity and the reduction of administrative costs of this technique in the digital world, in order to convince the supervisory authorities that applications on other subjects and other communities, in particular the communities of the informal economy, can benefit from the services associated with dematerialization by anonymous authentication.

The performance of any organization can only be achieved if the data it processes are reliable, and if the origin of the data is assured. The weak link in collecting, recording and interpreting data is always the human being.

Today, the data collected on the informal sector and migration centers are collected by interviewers and hand-writings from a model which distorts understanding and does not allow large-scale studies. The data is not reliable enough, it is not temper-proof and it is a source of risk for personal data. In particular, the collected data can be diverted and used for other purposes.

This is where the innovation of non-nominative authentication develops its interest and is remarkable.

Data can only be collected and interpreted in relation to a specific application and a previously established model. Data cannot be associated with a person without his/her physical presence. It is therefore not possible to associate databases and carry out studies on anything other than the model studied and in which the collected data participate. The migration model and the geo-location and data information can be enhanced based on the data that is collected but the collected data cannot be falsified.

Digital twin technology is an essential concept in the Internet of Things applied to industry by allowing a virtual representation of a product. It is used for the design, simulation, monitoring, optimization or maintenance of the product.
Digital technologies make it possible to record and preserve electronic data. But these data are nominative in essence and therefore sensitive.
For the first time, thanks to non-nominative digital authentication, it is possible to create digital twins of activities linked to human beings, without infringing their personal data, to allow a virtual representation of a community or a region, or a migration movement, to carry out for exampleepidemiological monitoring in real time, and to study the social and financial consequences of the migration and the protection of migrants members.
We want to apply the digital twin technology to the Internet of Humans, based on the already existing digitization of migrant health and journey data in order to extend it to children on the move and to other members of their family, without the need to name them, but with the needed accuracy and protection of privacy, and then gradually apply it to nomadic and fragile populations requesting specific assistance and policies.

Child and adolescent migrants living in street situations are faced with
problems of insecurity such as being robbed of the money they have
earned by small jobs – that they need to survive another day.

Input: By gradually associating the techniques of non-nominative authentication as a service based on hand vein networks in camps and reception centers allows hundreds of thousand migrants monitoring done by TdH, it is possible to make these data usable by digital models that allow for prospective studies without the need for traceable fingerprints and any other biometrics techniques used by governments to identify citizens.

Results: The first result is a more reliable data collection and a reduction in administrative tasks for humanitarian and administrative staff.

The second result is to allow children to keep their savings safe thanks to a banking application. (In west Africa it is easy for them to deposit and withdraw money from XPRESS ECOBANK point (a neighbourhood micro-agency) installed in the Hope Points set up by Tdh.)

The third result is the standardization and anonymization of the data collection, making it possible to simply follow digitally the activity and the chronology of reception centers along the route without the need for official identity usage nor ID documents.

Output: The consequence is that the same technique of non-nominative authentication can be applied to offer digital repository to unaccompanied children and migrant populations in order to complete and keep their medical file, and gradually offer similar services to other members of other communities, according to their age and according to the means available.

Evidence: Around 90% of children stay within the region and move towards cities and agricultural or production sites such as gold mines or cacao plantations. Based on a gradual modeling of a growing population, it is planned to better understand and manage the logistic of millions of young migrants and to deliver more adequate protective services, to organize the reception centers for a more efficient way, to fight against unaccompanied children trafficking, to prepare for adequate solutions and to measure the consequences of the planned actions.

"Authentication as a Service" is intended to simplify the procedures for digitizing and linking databases while protecting and anonymizing personal data.
QR code and barcode reader scanners are known and used everywhere in logistics. Veintree scanners are also QR code and barcode readers, but also have the ability to encode the venous networks in a unique way, specific to each application and in a cyber protected manner in compliance with the GDPR. The scanners are portable and will be available for administrative services. They are independent, communicating, autonomous, operating on batteries and do not overload administrative tasks and existing IT infrastructures. They operate outdoors with no infrastructure required.

"Authentication as a Service" is intended to simplify the procedures for digitizing and linking databases while protecting and anonymizing personal data.
The link of the scanners with a governmental digital identification system is made on the basis of a unique serial number generated by the identification system during a first valid enrollment of the beneficiary, in the presence of a duly registered identification officer, to know and verify the reality of the officer, and to carry out a double signature, which allows to authenticate the data belonging to the citizen and to make the automatic correspondence with his identification file. It is therefore an addition of a single alphanumeric field on the side of the government identification system that should be done.
The rest of the procedure is managed by the Trusted Third Party Authentication Server as a Service and the applications concerned which enrich the identification files.

All the protocols used follow ISO 9001, 13485, 27001 procedures. Communications are carried out in cyberprotected HTTP/REST.
Generic and open source encodings are provided for use by governments upon request.
Only non-governmental and commercial applications are specifically encoded so that there is no mixing of encodings.

It should also be noted that Veintree scanners can generate generic encoding and specific encoding at the same time.

Generic encoding can be sent to the government server and the specific encoding and related data are only sent to the specific non-governmental servers for privacy reasons.

It is not possible to infer government encoding from non-government encoding, or vice versa. It is in no way possible to determine the identity of the beneficiary solely on the basis of the encodings.
An application development platform is being prepared to allow interested developers to use “Authentication as a Service” in their own applications.
This platform will allow, online, each mandated developer to respond to requests from governmental, non-governmental or commercial organizations by means of specific and controlled encoding.
The scanners will then be provided to the users on the basis of a subscription for each application.

Veintree scanners are as easy to use as QR Code or barcode scanners.

They are autonomous and communicate visually only by an RGB button LED which indicates the start-up (green), the state of charge (flashing blue), the progress of the authentication process (flashing orange) and its positive completion (green ) or failed (red).
Asynchronous and automatic communication based on open but protected protocols allows communication between scanners and scanners with relay database servers (called S0) placed near the place of use. The S0 server receives the data from the registered scanners and erases them when confirming their transmission.
These SO relay database servers communicate asynchronously and under a cyberprotected protocol to the trusted third party server.
There is therefore no intervention that is made by the beneficiary other than allowing the right and left hands to be scanned during a contact-less hand rotation between pronation and supination.
The fact that the scanning is contact-less has several advantages and demonstrates that the method is non traceable, in contrary to fingerprint recording.

The current solution is in pilot phase for 600 people from ICRC and EVAM at EPFL under the responsibility of EssentialTech.

We are in the process of finalizing a Horizon2020 project from the European Commission in Cybersecurity which will allow us to offer services to several migrant camps in Greece and Italy managed mainly by Terre des Hommes. We will therefore be able to serve several thousand people.
In 3 years we expect to provide digital services through anonymous authentication to a significant portion of the 500,000 migrants in Greece and the 700,000 migrants in Italy, in order to allow them to have access to their rights and to the specific services they have. need
With the application as part of the IeDA, again managed by Terre Des Hommes, we expect to serve several million children and their parents within 5 years.

For the coming year, as part of a consortium responding to a call for project proposals from the European Commission H2020 (SU-DS02-2020) Secure societies: Protecting freedom and security of Europe and its citizens Scope of action ( d): Distributed trust management and digital identity solutions, we are securing our electronics with the development of a specific processor that is faster and consumes less energy, capable of rapid processing in artificial intelligence. We are developing digital twin applications as part of the Migration and Secure Identity project in collaboration with Golem, IMC, Terracom and with the Institute for Safety and Security in cybersecurity, and we are designing a development platform to enable any developer to simply create their secure and ethical applications using non-nominative authentication technology. In this way, we prepare ourselves for a sustainable and replicable development by facilitating a wide and peripheral use of our technology. For the next 5 years, our goal is to enable all individuals to enforce their rights to personal and secure digital data while benefiting from technology at the service of communities.

The obstacles are mainly related to communication and awareness of people around new technologies for the protection of personal data. The IT majors, by offering free services, make personal data an income and we want to prevent sensitive personal data from being captured.
This paradigm shift is the main obstacle to the development of this technology and awareness will have to be done due to the abuses that are emerging in social media platforms.

We believe that the development of social networks is opposed to data protection and respect for human beings due to the monetization of their data by third parties. Awareness is starting to emerge and the GDPR is showing the way.

We go beyond the General Data Protection Regulations by following the very strict guidelines of the ICRC on the use of biometrics during humanitarian actions.
We believe that we will be able to extend ethical biometrics to numerous applications by replacing the identification and merging of databases with tamper-proof non-nominative authentication.

The consortium brings together non-profit organizations:

Terre des Hommes based in Lausanne (Switzerland)

A mixed public organization: Cité de la Solidarité Internationale

Two public university organizations: ISS et REDS

A foundation for humanitarian purposes: EssentialMed

And four profit-making organizations:  Veintree SAS, Golem GmbH, IMC sro, Terracom SA.

The consortium has 28 people:

Operational management: 4 FTEs and active Advisory board.
Electronics: 4 FTEs from a university structure
Hardware: 3 people 1.5 FTE
Software for the scanner: 3 people 1.5 FTE.
AI development and digital twin models and application development server: 5 people.
Development of trusted third-party servers: 1 person.
Cyber security: 3 part-time people.
Application development will be carried out by 3 developers in 2 shifts.
Communication and coordination with authorities and NGOs 2 people 1 FTE

The consortium brings together the most advanced skills in each field around a common goal: Authentication as a Service and the development of digital twins intended for humanitarian actions.

Veintree developing the concept and the prototypes,
Golem and IMC developing the digital twin and the development platform,
Terracom, developing applications in logistics,
ISS supervising the project to make it perfectly secure,
and the framework of the Swiss Trust Valley.

As part of the Trust Valley, Veintree relies on:
EssentialTech coordinating the efforts to mature scanners for hostile environments.
EssentialMed coordinating eHealth efforts.

Terre des Hommes which wishes to benefit from this technology and allow the camps, their administration and migrant and vulnerable people to benefit from this technology.
The ICRC, which will use the technology in conflict zones.

Our business model is based on the OPEX subscription to a service that covers the supply of scanners and the processing of data on a quarterly basis, payable in advance under a 3-year contract, allowing a guarantee of renewal of scanners at the rate of a scanner every 3 years and an adaptation to any improvement that could be made during the term of the contract. (including the complete replacement of the scanners by a part-for-part exchange and recycling by us.)

The development of the technology is funded by the European Commission, as part of the aforementioned Call for Proposal H2020.

The pilot projects are funded by Swiss humanitarian foundations which are active in tax-exempt humanitarian donations and loans for humanitarian aid.

Private investors: US $ 300,000 from 2016 to 2019.

Foundations, Prize and Grant: US $ 150,000 from 2019 to today as part of the tax exemption for foundations in force in Switzerland.

The ARK Foundation and 1st Tech4Trust Innovation Prize 2020.

Consortium industrialization project underway: US $ 6 million over the next 3 years.

Our step-by-step financial approach consists of raising funds from Foundations (loans and humanitarian donations) and banks (loans and sponsorships) to pre-finance contracts signed with governmental and non-governmental organizations.
If the European Commission project was not to be fully funded, the missing amount would be funded by fundraising from humanitarian investors in the next 6 months in coordination with Glosya.

In 2020, the estimated expenditure is US $ 250,000 for software and server development.

Additional expenses are suspended to the H2020 subsidy.

Mission Billion Challenge is the best possible innovation platform to gain visibility with a large circle of investors and international humanitarian organizations.

Our consortium needs contacts with decision-makers and board members of international organizations in order to convince them of the imperative of protecting the data of their beneficiaries and cybersecurity issues as a necessary condition for developing the digitization of their activities.
In particular, the use of "Authentication as a Service" allows many applications in various fields: distribution of humanitarian seeds according to the surface of the properties, development of digital vaccination records, definition of Cash for life, management of disasters, verification of presence information, family reunification during migration, services for migrants and support for the management of NGOs to help migrants, constitution of CBHI (Community Based Health Insurance.) ...

We are partnering with

• IeDA project: Burkina Faso
• Essential Med University (Switzerland)

We wish to develop one pilot for "Healthcare4ALL" in Haiti with the funding of the World Bank to demonstrate the validity of the use of “Authentication as a Service” in the reorganization of the funding of a primary health system based on communities.