Slashdot is carrying a link to a story in the Toronto Star: "The Toronto Star is reporting that the first biometrics (iris-scanning, specifically) devices in airports 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." From the article in the Star: "The iris scan is touted as being virtually foolproof as an identification tool because the colourful ring around the pupil is unique from eyeball to eyeball and person and person. Unlike a fingerprint, it can't be replicated, and the machines recognize only "live" eyes." Pretty bold claims... apparently "Minority Report" hasn't opened in Canada yet. Who wants to bet that someone fools one of these machines with a box of crayons within three months? It can't be too long before the iris scanning kiosks start spewing out customized grocery coupons just for me. Go look at Slashdot... the Toronto Star uses unfriendly URLs. -- Greg Jorgensen PDXperts LLC, Portland, Oregon, USA
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