A rchive Date
[ 11-06-2003 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ Canada ]
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[http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/06/11/108882.html
Your ID going digital
By TOM GODFREY - Toronto Sun
Wed, June 11, 2003
The passport office has begun digitizing the photographs of millions of Canadians whose mugshots may end up in a United Nations-sanctioned global facial recognition database. The move is to meet standards set by the UN's International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), which requires a tiny computer chip with a person's picture and basic information be input into every passport from its 188 member states.
ICAO officials last week ruled facial recognition technology will be the method used to identify travellers, who will have their photos downloaded into the database of a foreign country every time their passport is scanned at a border.
The UN body said the global database can be used to nab or monitor terrorists, fugitives and others sought by police.
All passports will be chipped
Jacques Perron, of the Canadian Passport Office, said about four million Canadians have had their photos digitized since the program began two years ago.
"At some point every Canadian passport will have a chip inside," Perron said. "There is nothing to prevent nations from collecting data and putting them on a database."
He said no date has been set for when the chip will be inside Canadian passports, but officials are using facial recognition to screen people applying for passports to curb fraud.
ICAO spokesman Denis Chagnon said facial recognition will increase air security and speed up the flow of passengers.
"If police are trying to find someone their face can be flagged on a database," Chagnon said. "Anyone who holds a passport will become part of a global database."
 World Fact Book (CIA)]
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