Privacy by design: Why modern biometrics requires a zero trust architecture

In 2025, businesses have a rare win-win in front of them: palm biometrics can either replace clunky badges, PINs, and passwords altogether or serve as a frictionless second factor that hardens those existing controls. The upside is clear: faster checkouts, fraud-proof payments, fewer resets, happier users, but it comes with a mandate. 

Biometric templates are high-value, highly regulated data. Perimeter-based security isn’t enough anymore; every layer must assume breach and continuously verify. The stakes are measurable: the average breach costs $4.45M (IBM), and global payment fraud is projected to cost businesses over 48 billion annually (Juniper Research). Simultaneously, regulatory penalties from laws like GDPR and HIPAA for mishandling sensitive data can add millions more to that cost. Protecting biometric identity isn’t just an IT task; it’s a board-level priority that calls for a zero-trust, privacy-by-design architecture from day one.

Let’s dive in to learn how Keyo’s architecture enables safe, secure biometric deployments without the compliance-heavy lift.

What you get at Keyo: Stronger security, lower risk 

Before we talk configurations, let’s align on the two principles that make biometrics safe to scale. These aren’t buzzwords; they’re the guardrails at Keyo that let you move fast without creating risk.

Zero trust = every request proves itself.

Never trust—always verify. Being “inside” a network doesn’t grant access. Every device and service cryptographically proves identity for each request, and access is strictly least-privilege.

Why businesses care: Limits blast radius if something goes wrong, stops lateral movement, and creates clean audit trails for GDPR/HIPAA.

Keep data close, automatic compliance and sovereignty

One central database becomes a target. Instead, Keyo uses smaller, independent, secure regional data pods so data is processed and stored in a specific geography (e.g., the EU) to meet sovereignty laws—often called a fog/edge layer.

Why businesses care: Enforce residency by design, reduce risk concentration, and deliver faster scans with local processing.

Choose your control level: Three deployment models, one security posture

Different industries have different constraints. We meet you where you are—with identical security controls no matter how you deploy—so your legal, security, and IT teams don’t have to compromise to move forward.

• Keyo managed cloud – Turnkey and fully managed by our team for rapid pilots and multi-region rollouts.

• Sovereign cloud – Use your own trusted cloud tenancy (e.g., your AWS or Azure account) with full regional control — or leverage our secure hosting layer."

• On-premise – Run on your hardware for ultimate control in regulated environments.

The constant: Security parity across all models—continuous verification, encryption in transit/at rest, least-privilege access, and per-tenant isolation. The security is identical. The control is yours.

Why partners win: Faster rollouts & trusted posture

Adoption dies when deployment drags or compliance gets murky. This architecture is built to clear both hurdles so you can launch quickly and scale confidently.

• Simplified deployment: Devices establish secure outbound connections—no opening risky inbound firewall holes. Complex IT projects become straightforward installs.

• Guaranteed data sovereignty: Choose the country/region for processing and storage. Our distributed design provides a definitive, auditable residency model for GDPR and national laws.

• Inherited trust: By building on Keyo, you inherit a state-of-the-art security posture you can confidently extend to your customers.

• Future-Proof Platform: When you partner with Keyo, you are not just integrating a point solution; you are building on an evolving platform. Our architecture allows for the secure introduction of new features, such as advanced anti-spoofing and next-generation AI models, which you can then offer to your customers without needing to re-architect your own systems.

High-stakes, high-scale use cases

Keyo’s security framework is purpose-built for the following high-impact use cases and industries, aligning with strict data residency, uptime, and control requirements:

Frictionless & fraud-proof retail: A global retailer can offer a seamless "wave-to-pay" experience. By irrevocably tying the payment to the physical presence of the authenticated user, Keyo virtually eliminates chargebacks from both third-party and "friendly" fraud. Our distributed architecture ensures high-speed transactions and local data privacy, from New York to Tokyo.

Secure healthcare facilities: A hospital system can use Keyo for employee access and time management, with the guarantee that all sensitive validation data is processed and stored exclusively on servers within their country's borders, ensuring full compliance with health data regulations.

Frictionless retail & hospitality: A global hotel chain can offer a seamless check-in experience, allowing a guest who enrolled in New York to be instantly recognized in Tokyo. The system automatically routes validation requests to the correct regional data pod, ensuring both high speed and local data privacy.

Critical infrastructure security: A financial institution can deploy Keyo's software stack on their own on-premise servers to control access to secure data centers, ensuring that no data ever leaves their physical control while still benefiting from a modern, centrally managed platform.

Answers to leadership’s biggest questions

You’re accountable for risk, cost, and momentum. These are the questions we hear most often when teams evaluate biometric rollouts.

Q: "If you don't store any biometric data, what is stored in your cloud?"

A: Our servers store a non-reversible and cancelable mathematical derivation of your biometric data. It is not the biometric data itself. Think of it as a secure "lock" or "helper data." This data is mathematically useless without the live biometric "key" from the user, which is only present during the scan. This method ensures that even in the extraordinarily unlikely event of a breach of our servers, no usable biometric data is ever exposed.

Q: "How does this architecture specifically reduce payment fraud?"

A: Our system attacks fraud at its source by creating an unbreakable link between the payment credential and the verified, physically present user.

• For Stolen Cards: A fraudster with a stolen credit card number cannot use it because they don't have the owner's palm.

• For Chargebacks/"Friendly Fraud": The system creates a non-repudiable, cryptographically signed audit trail proving that the authenticated individual was physically present and approved the transaction. This gives merchants the definitive evidence needed to challenge and win chargeback disputes. This level of assurance can fundamentally change the risk and cost model for payment processing.

Q: "Does this mean our IT team has to manage a complex new system?"

A: No, quite the opposite. Our platform is designed to be a managed service. Keyo handles the complexity of the security, updates, and infrastructure, providing your team with a simple dashboard for monitoring and user management. For your network team, the process is as simple as connecting a new device to the internet.

Q: "How does this work with our existing security, like our firewalls and VPNs?"

A: Zero Trust complements your existing security, it doesn't replace it. Your firewall is still your strong perimeter. Our system adds a new layer of dynamic, identity-based security inside that perimeter, ensuring that even if one part of the network were compromised, the access of any device or service is strictly limited and continuously verified.

The takeaway: Privacy-first biometrics without trade-offs

Adopt palm biometrics to eliminate fraud, streamline access, or serve as seamless 2FA—without taking on outsized risk. With zero trust and distributed architecture, Keyo delivers speed, sovereignty, and security across our cloud, your cloud, or your data center—so you scale confidently and stay in control. This privacy-by-design approach extends all the way to our purpose-built hardware, which uses secure, on-device processing to ensure raw biometric data never leaves the point of capture.

Learn more at keyo.co or contact the team @hello@keyo.co