Demand for biometrics is rising as organizations around the world strengthen their protections of user identities, even amid a notable uptick in concerns around privacy and ethics, according to new research from HID.
HID surveyed more than 1,500 security and IT professionals, partners and end users for the “2026 State of Security and Identity Report” to identify key trends in identity security.
The report shows that digital identity management is a top priority for 73 percent of respondents, and their strategic planning is largely focussed on more unified identity governance. The convergence of physical and digital identity is part this new model, replacing standalone credential systems. Three quarters of organizations have already deployed (29 percent) or are in the process of evaluating unified identity solutions (46 percent).
Mobile credentials continue to move into the mainstream, driven primarily by security concerns, but credentials tend to by hybrid, with 84 percent of end users keeping physical credentials alongside mobile deployments.
Nearly half of those surveyed consider biometrics strategic, but the number expressing privacy and ethics concerns related to the technology rose dramatically from 31 percent to 67 percent, according to HID. Despite this, 60 percent of end users plan to increase their spending on biometrics in the years ahead.
Just over a third of end users are currently using biometrics, the report shows, and another 23 percent are in the planning stage. The report shows biometrics are also expanding beyond multi-factor authentication implementations.
The adoption of real-time location solutions (RTLS) and RFID technologies are also increasing.
“Security leaders are clearly under pressure to modernize access and identity infrastructure, but our research shows they’re equally focused on the governance, protection and transparency that build lasting trust,” says Ramesh Songukrishnasamy, SVP and CTO at HID. “The organizations succeeding in 2026 are those giving stakeholders meaningful solution choice while maintaining robust security.”
Article Topics
biometrics | digital identity | HID | identity management | identity security | market report