IDEMIA supports French law enforcement’s efforts to fight organized crime and illegal immigration

When the French government decided to modernize passenger data management to detect threats and strengthen homeland security, they chose IDEMIA’s end-to-end API-PNR solution.

Cross-border crime is one of the biggest challenges faced by law enforcement today. With air travel continuing to rise (71% increase since 2000 and it exceeded four billion passengers for the first time in 2017), agencies have to work harder and smarter to fight organized crime, human trafficking and terrorism. With the International Air Transport Association (IATA) predicting that air travel will double between 2017 and 2036, agents will need to analyze massive amounts of data without disrupting airport operations and passenger throughput.

A smarter way

Against this backdrop and as the world’s most popular tourist destination, the French government wanted to develop a forward-looking solution that could more effectively manage passenger data. They wanted to help law enforcement get smarter about detecting, investigating and preventing criminal activity and terrorist threats while maintaining efficient passenger flow facilitation systems. Therefore, the French government set up a joint ministerial committee to realize a stateof-the-art API (Advanced Passenger Information) and a PNR (Passenger Name Record) system to automate existing processes, identify sensitive or suspicious patterns and enhance passenger controls. To implement such a solution, they turned to IDEMIA, a trusted partner of more than 450 government agencies worldwide.

Due to the increasing accessibility of travel, identity checks have become more challenging. The amount of data to be processed has never been higher, so a new approach to data management and homeland security is necessary. Our innovative solution meets these new challenges and complies with international security requirements. It is sophisticated, fast, and user friendly – and it ensures data protection. We thank the French government for trusting IDEMIA, and we look forward to expanding our collaboration.
Philippe Barreau, IDEMIA Executive Vice President in charge of Public Security & Identity

A savvy suite

To help the French government with each critical aspect of effective passenger data management, we offered our IDEMIA Traveler Analytics Suite (IDEMIA TAS) – a sophisticated and automated risk assessment solution designed to detect persons of interest and identify suspicious patterns, all in full compliance with legal requirements as well as EU recommendations and privacy regulations.
What makes this API-PNR solution so effective is its ability to manage massive amounts of data from multiple sources, which allows law enforcement agents to run pre-travel passenger risk analyses, screen national and international databases in real time, develop risk profiles, spot suspicious behavior, and more.

The key features of IDEMIA TAS include:

• Passenger data collection and pre-processing
• Extensive range of connectors for airline data providers
• Watch list management and real-time screening of national, European and international systems
• Surveillance of multiple individuals or targets
• Risk assessment with advanced features such as fuzzy logic and name matching
• Identification of suspects or suspicious patterns from pre-tested standard profiles and alert management
• Administration, supervision and reporting tools with flexible access right restrictions
• Staff training to independently operate the solution with very high availability

A comprehensive connector

Connectivity and availability were top priorities for the French APIPNR program. In addition to collecting data simultaneously from up to 230 airlines, our solution needed to allow secure real-time data sharing between ten government agencies. This represents 70 passenger information units and more than 200 secured workspaces. Overall, up to 3,500 end users and operators will process some one billion records over five years.
Using flexible and standardized connectors, IDEMIA TAS ensures the system is always online. Data filtering and cleansing prevent duplicates and increase data quality. Thanks to modular and scalable design, IDEMIA TAS integrates algorithms and reporting tools that enable users to adapt their strategy to new threat patterns. Cases and alerts are managed in simple, intuitive interfaces with customizable workflows.
Because data privacy is also a key requirement, IDEMIA TAS was designed with an advanced data protection and user management model. It manages data privacy, traces all activity and monitors access authorization.

A real crime fighter

The French API-PNR program went live in 2016, backed by the IDEMIA Traveler Analytics Suite and in full compliance with EU legislation. Since then, French authorities have eagerly put the tool to work to detect more suspicious activity and uncover many crimes.
With IDEMIA TAS, French law enforcement agents now have the advanced, automated crime-fighting tool they need to detect risks and threat patterns in real time from a huge and growing volume of passenger data.

A win-win solution

Governments agencies:

• Advanced, automated tool boosts efforts to fight organized crime and illegal immigration
• End-to-end solution from data collection to alert management
• Large throughput thanks to artificial intelligence
• Efficient data management that frees up resources
• Advanced data protection and user management model ensures data privacy

Operators / Users:

• User-friendly GUI with customizable workflows
• Powerful analytics with state-of-the-art features
• Instant big data processing
• Easily adaptable to new threat patterns