The European Union has formally launched its digital COVID-19 certificate, an app-based system designed to allow quarantine-free travel within its member nations, rolled out in all 27 countries as of July 1st, positioning it as “a common tool”.

That stands in sharp contrast to the United States, where proposals for a national vaccine passport system emerged as a political lightning rod and sparked privacy concerns. 

Several companies have developed technology to aid the transition back to normalcy as we're in this new era of biodata collection:

• Google has update its Pay app's "Passes API" to make it easier for healthcare organizations to create digital vaccine cards.

• Location-based authentication and the rhythm of your heart as your password: an industry first, Taliware’s Biombeat API combines a person’s ECG biometrics with geolocation.

• CLEAR “is about using your eyes as your driver's license or your boarding pass”. It charges a $179 per year subscription to securely store biometric data that confirms your identity.

• Ticketmaster is considering a Health Passport to verify the status of fans between a 24-to-72-hour window prior to the ticketed event.

• Daon launched Biometric VeriFLY app for vaccine status sharing.

• Using blockchain technology, AOKpass provides a digitally authenticated, secure and portable copy of your medical records, and IATA Travel Pass helps travelers store and manage verified certifications for tests or vaccines.

• Temperature-reading infrared cameras and thermal imaging help identify sick people, but are not always accurate and raise a whole host of privacy concerns.

• Fingerprint authentication has largely been superseded by face authentication, however the latter has been rendered less effective during the pandemic.

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