In our 5 minutes with profiles, MEF members talk about their business, their aspirations for the future and the wider mobile industry. This week, Dr. Piet Streicher, MD of BulkSMS.com.

BulkSMS is a global A2P SMS messaging service provider offering innovative solutions, enabling our customers to communicate their short and relevant messages using self-service or API products. We offer large, medium and small organisations in the commercial, public, government and non-profit sectors, the ability to send person–to-person, application-to-person and application-to-application SMS messages. Our SMS gateway connects to over 900 mobile networks.

Get the latest announcements from MEF Members across the mobile ecosystem globally in this weekly review of member news…

acing ahead in the field of facial biometrics, UK biometric firm, iProov has been selected by the US Department of Homeland Security to tighten the security of cross-border passenger travel. The contract was awarded to iProov by the US Department of Homeland Security Science & Technology Directorate’s Silicon Valley Innovation Programme (SVIP).

Think A2P is big business now? Wait until consumers start having free-flowing chat sessions with intelligent robot agents. The numbers will be eye-watering. So says, CLX’s Rob Malcolm. But it won’t happen overnight…

It’s possible to break down the history of mobile messaging into four eras. In the first one, when SMS was launched, telecoms engineers used the channel to speak to fellow engineers. Later, users started to message each other. Then came A2P messaging, with businesses sending texts to customers.

Find out the week’s top mobile stories from around the world. This week.. Facebook to exclude billions from European privacy laws, Smartphone usage set to overtake time spent watching TV in China, social media use increasing despite privacy fears and much more.

Facebook has changed its terms of service, meaning 1.5 billion members will not be protected under tough new privacy protections coming to Europe.