Althia Raj reports:
OTTAWA — The federal privacy watchdog has rejected Passport Canada’s plan to embed fingerprints and iris scans in electronic passports.
In a review of the project, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner told the passport office not to include new biometric information on a radio frequency chip encoded in e-passports.
“The more information you collect, the more information you put at risk,” said assistant privacy commissioner Chantal Bernier.
She said Passport Canada “backed away” from putting more data on the chip than they currently collect.
E-passports will feature a digitized picture of the passport holder as well as their name, date of birth, location of birth and passport number, said Passport Canada spokesman Jean-Sebastien Roy.
A national roll-out of the e-passport is expected to begin in 2011.
Read more in the Toronto Sun.