News and insight into biometric identification and authentication

Canada promised biometric passports

Thursday, March 4, 2010

After first promising its citizens biometric passports in 2008, the Canadian government has promised to move the program back into items they intend to deliver to its citizens. The announcement came during a throne speech on March 3 that discussed multiple items that had been promised to be included in the federal 2008 budget, but were cut for various reasons.

Originally, the biometric passport was tabled due to worries over implementation costs and logistics as well as questions surrounding its proposed ten year validation span. While those behind the push for bringing the project back are interested in what the technology can do to improve national security, some politicians are still questioning if biometrics are accurate enough and if privacy concerns are being considered enough in the implementation of the project.

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After a nearly three-year delay, the Algerian government has finally launched its biometric passport program.

Magharebia reports that the biometric passports, which contain a contactless smart card chip that holds a digitized photo, fingerprints and signature, were supposed to be released in 2009. But the documents were delayed due to complexities with the operation of the project and the need to thoroughly research and analyze other countries’ experiences with biometric passports.

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Passport Canada CEO Christine Desloges has announced that Canada will start issuing e-passports by the end of next year, according to Citytv.com.

Speaking at a conference at the Montreal HQ of the United Nations International Civil Aviation Organization, Desloges declared, “Canada is on track for the full-scale delivery of its e-passport. Next year we will roll out the full issuance.”

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Visa and Imperial Parking Canada Corp. (Impark) are teaming up to offer Visa payWave contactless payments to 72 of its attended parking facilities across Canada.

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Kosovo has begun issuing new biometric passports powered by chip technology from Switzerland’s Trüb AG.

The Balkan nation of 1.7 million has contracted the Austrian State Printing House (OeSD) to manufacture the new passport booklets and integrate Trüb’s the polycarbonate film datapages, which contain an ICAO-compliant antenna and chip module that stores the document holder’s personal data, a facial image and two fingerprints.

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In an effort to streamline passenger security, Jakarta, Indonesia’s Soekarno-Hatta Airport has opened the country’s first biometric immigration gate.

Fingerprint biometric identification provider BIO-key International, Inc. and Oakwell Engineering Limited partnered to create the new gate, designed for use by passengers with electronic passports. Passengers submit their e-passports and authenticate with a fingerprint.

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Privacy advocates in Canada have been raising concerns over the risk involved in two new biometric programs from the government that result in the sharing of private biometric data with other countries’ governments and possibly private corporations, according to an Embassy Magazine article.

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