Iris Scanners in Canadian Airports

Ian_Bailey writes "The Toronto Star is reporting that the first biometrics (Iris-scanning specifically) devices in airport will be in place in Toronto and Vancouver starting in March. These devices are meant to speed-up the check-in process for frequent travellers, without compromising security. It is stressed that privacy advocates have nothing to worry about, because they are completely voluntary and cannot be used to scan without a person's knowledge, but there is a brief note about using it in the future for staff."

Comments

Re:Canada is not the first?

[JaredOfEuropa]

The article does mention Schiphol. The interesting thing to note is that Schiphol uses these devices to speed up passport control, not check-in or customs. For a fee, travellers can sign up for this program and bypass passport control completely. The scanner is placed next to the passport control booth so the officers can keep an eye on it, to help people resist the temptation to just hop over the barrier.

These things are notoriously poor

[potcrackpot]

Biometric eye-scanners are notoriously bad at recognising people, and very inaccurate. This article (about a trial of fingerprint-, iris- and face- scanning technology) quotes such figures as 47% accuracy!

The system struggled to identify people if there were wearing spectacles, if the lighting was wrong or if they moved their heads too much.

Apparently, people could fool face-scanning systems (yes, I know they're different) with photos or video images. It doesn't actually say how to fool iris-scanners - but suggests that the trial wasn't convinced of their greatness.

Still, at least they're not going to use fingerprint scanners at the airport as they think they're too easily fooled - the BBC article reckons you can fool those by breathing on them.

I'm not sure whether this kind of security is best placed in an airport - fine for lower-risk security such as getting into your office block, or maybe even for your home burglar alarm - but at an airport with (potentially) massive numbers of subscribers to the system - sounds like a poor idea.

Schiphol system works but it�s unsafe

[ginkelb]

Sure we are using the irisscan program on schiphol airport to bypass customs.

There is however an security risk with this system that can not be solved by placing the scan equipment next to a security officer.

The scan of the iris is kept on personal digital medium and not on a central server due to privacy laws in holland. When a visitor arives he presents the machine with his card, look into the camera and the machine verifys that the presented iris is the same as stored on the card.

The problem with this is obvious. Hack the card, upload youre own scan and you can get access while using the name of someone else.

Sure privacy issues arise when you store the irir scans on a central server and only present the machine with youre identity. But untill you do it that way youll never get a really secure system.

Greetz,
Bas