Passport to Brinworld: Canadian Passport office digitizing all photos for UN database

[Tim Meehan]

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2003/06/11/108882.html

Your ID going digital

By TOM GODFREY - Toronto Sun


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."