Canadian officials have used biometric identification technology to flag 15 fraudsters attempting to get travel documents under assumed names, reports The Canadian Press.
The bust is the product of a trial project initiated in 2014 by the Canada Border Services Agency in collaboration with the federal Immigration Department. The former shared the photos as well as biographic information of a thousand high-risk individuals to the Immigration Department, and that information has now led to the biometric matching of 15 people applying for ID documents who may be connected to terrorism and other criminal activities. Speaking to The Canadian Press’ Jim Bronskill, a CBSA official said authorities have taken “appropriate enforcement action,” but couldn’t provide further details about the ongoing investigations.
It’s a program that could soon expand, with authorities now analyzing data gleaned from a second phase of the project that concluded in March of this year. If the agencies decide to proceed, they’ll need to perform a privacy impact assessment in collaboration with the country’s privacy commissioner, who has not yet been consulted on the matter. That will reflect a growing trend that has seen law enforcement authorities around the world increasingly keen to collect biometric identification data, and if recent developments in the US and the UK are any indication, it will also entail the navigation of a new frontier in civil privacy rights.
Source: The Record
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June 8, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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