Thread: Clearing Customs with an Eye Scan (Canada)

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1121 ... 72,00.html


Clearing Customs with an Eye Scan
By Jessica Mintz
The Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2005; Pg. D4


The Canadian Border Services Agency is expanding its biometric identification program, designed to speed travelers through customs and immigration checkpoints.

Canpass Air, a program available to Canadians and U.S. citizens and resident aliens, opened in Edmonton airport last week and is slated to start in Ottawa in the fall. It is already in use in Calgary, Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver and Winnipeg.

To join Canpass, flyers pay 50 Canadian dollars (US$41) and submit to a background check and interviews. A photo of each Canpass member's iris -- the colored part of the eye, which contains more unique patterns than a fingerprint -- is stored in a border agency database. So far, there are about 9,000 Canpass members.

At the airport, Canpass members use an automated kiosk instead of waiting in the customs and immigration lines. At the machine, which resembles an ATM or e-ticket check-in kiosk, members lean in to have a digital snapshot of their eye taken and compared with the image on file. Members use a touch screen to answer the typical customs questions -- Anything to declare? -- are issued a receipt, and head out the door. A spokeswoman for the border agency says some random customs checks will still occur.

Biometric identification programs are in pilot stages in the U.S., in a program run by the Transportation Security Administration.

Biometric identification programs are in pilot stages in the U.S., in a program run by the Transportation Security Administration.

Transportation Security Administration....interesting....do you think they are the ones responsible for ensuring that illegal aliens don't get jobs doodling with our COMMERCIAL AIRLINERS?

I think they should BEEF UP that section before wasting alot of time and money on systems to take pictures of all our "eyes".