The G2 Weekly Podcast delivers insights into the world of identity and biometrics. Each week, the podcast will cover important developments in the field, making it a valuable resource for professionals in various sectors.

(January 27, 2026 - February 3, 2026 )

🎙️ Identity Insights: The Pivot to Enforcement & The Deepfake Defense

Hosted by Ralph Rodriguez, MIT Fellow and biometric identity expert, this week’s episode breaks down a volatile week where policy heat met platform pivots. From Amazon’s retreat on retail biometrics to the EU’s border chaos, we cover the critical shifts defining the 2026 identity stack.

In This Episode:

• Big Tech Pivots: Amazon officially kills its Amazon One palm biometrics for retail, signaling a higher bar for in-store identity liability, while TikTok’s new privacy policy raises fresh alarms over opaque data collection.

• The Deepfake Crackdown: Regulators are done asking nicely. We discuss the shift from voluntary "trust & safety" to enforceable obligations for AI platforms regarding deepfake porn, alongside Outtake’s $40M raise to secure "agentic-AI" identity flows.

• M&A & Market Movers: TransUnion is set to acquire RealNetworks’ mobile unit, and Apple quietly acquires a facial-expression and affect-detection specialist linked to the Face ID lineage.

• Biometrics & Standards: Level-3 PAD (Presentation Attack Detection) is the new liveness watermark as RIVR tests show targeted selfie-spoofs are still splitting the vendor field. Plus, Android expands its Identity Check biometrics.

• Global Policy Watch: Experts label the EU’s EES phase-two rollout a "mess," while Spain and Vietnam move toward strict social media bans and mandatory ID checks for users under 16.

• The 2026 Identity Arc: Why the future belongs to those who pair strong biometrics with passkeys and continuous re-screening, as winners move toward proving who (or what) is acting at scale.

Tune in for the full analysis of how the identity landscape is shifting from issuance to continuous verification.

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Credit and appreciation go to Google's NotebookLM for transforming my identity and biometrics newsletter into an AI-powered audio podcast!