[London, July 17, 2025] - Keyless, the leader in privacy-preserving biometrics, has been recognized by Gartner® as a Representative Vendor in the 2025 Hype Cycle™ for Digital Identity, under the Third-Party Biometrics category.

Unlike device-native options such as FaceID or Android Biometrics, third-party biometric solutions operate independently of the operating system. This enables organizations to link authentication to the actual user, rather than to the device, ensuring stronger identity assurance.

In the report, Gartner outlines several key benefits of third-party biometrics over device-native methods, noting that they provide “greater control over configuration, enrollment and choice of modes.” They also state that they offer better portability across platforms and devices, and are well-suited for multi-channel environments.

Gartner also highlights a key point - that third-party biometrics “enable high-assurance remote account recovery.” While device-native biometrics are lost with the phone, third-party systems allow users to recover their accounts simply by re-binding a new device with a quick look at the camera.

Gartner identifies two key architectural models for third-party biometrics: centralized and decentralized. The difference lies in where biometric reference data is stored and where the comparison takes place.

Centralized third-party architectures store biometric templates on a cloud server, which can introduce privacy risks if the server is compromised. Decentralized third-party systems, on the other hand, were developed to address this very issue. 

Keyless was one of the first vendors to bring decentralized biometrics to market. Its patented Zero-Knowledge Biometrics™ technology transforms the biometric data on the device and stores only a cryptographic representation to the server, which is unreadable to both Keyless and the cloud service provider. Neither sees the original biometric reference - and only the enrolled user, with their device, can authenticate.

This approach makes the system completely privacy-preserving, and it's now being adopted by organizations worldwide, including those operating in highly privacy-focused markets. One example is Relai, a Bitcoin wallet provider, which uses Keyless biometrics to secure its login and account recovery process whilst keeping customer biometrics private.

The digital identity ecosystem is currently undergoing a major shift. Keyless is proud to be recognized by Gartner for its contribution and commitment to building a safer, more private future for digital identity.

Access the full Gartner report here: https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/6718134