The Canadian government is testing out facial recognition for border security screening.
The work is being led by the Canadian Border Services Agency in collaboration with the University of Quebec, with the system in question designed to scan the faces of travelers captured on video cameras and compare them against criminal and terrorist databases. The aim is to immediately and automatically identify individuals who could pose a security threat.
So far, the system is being tested only in controlled environments, but as Radio Canada International reports, a federal privacy watchdog has already cautioned the CBSA about potential risks entailed in such a system, including the possibility that it may inaccurately link innocent travelers to suspected threats. It’s a concern that has been echoed in countries like Canada’s neighbor, the US, whose national border security agency has been testing out similar technology.
While such concerns will need to be taken seriously, worldwide trends suggest that this kind of biometric border screening is going to grow increasingly popular as an important security layer in the years to come.
Source: Radio Canada International
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January 8, 2016 – by Alex Perala
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