by DOMINIQUE RITTER

Think you can tell a lot about a person by looking into their eyes? Well, baby, you ain’t got nothing on technology. Forget about windows onto your soul; your eyes are now the windows onto your precise identity.

Next year the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency will be introducing the latest self-service iris-scanning technology into eight of the country’s largest international airports. The new system is formally known as CANPASS-Air and what it does is allow certain “low-risk,” pre-approved travellers to have their identity confirmed by an eye-scanning kiosk rather than standing in that tedious customs line with a couple hundred other people who just got off the flight from Bangkok and haven’t showered for 42 hours.

According to Caroline Jacques, a spokesperson for Canada Customs, the system is tailored to the frequent international flyer, who travels a great deal but shouldn’t be the primary focus of customs agents. By fast-tracking the low-risk passengers, Canada Customs will be able to spend more time on higher- and unknown-risk passengers.

“It’s a dual mandate: to facilitate the movement of people and at the same time ensure the safety of Canadians,” Jacques says. “The travelling public is pretty happy with this because it will speed up things at the border.”

When asked if her department had received any complaints regarding privacy issues, her reply was a firm “No.” But Philippa Lawson, senior counsel at the Public Interest Advocacy Centre, an Ottawa-based national, non-profit organization that focuses on research involving public programs, services and issues, including privacy, isn’t convinced the benefits outweigh the privacy concerns.

“It’s a repugnant technology,” Lawson says. “I’m not convinced that this is the least invasive option. Scanning parts of human bodies is fundamentally at odds with the notions of privacy and individual dignity.”

Eyes on file

To begin with, at least, the CANPASS system will be purely voluntary. Travellers will have to apply, undergo a background check and pay an annual $50 fee for the pass. Only Canadian citizens or permanent residents without a criminal record or immigration or customs problems will be eligible. An image of their iris—the coloured ring around the pupil—will be photographed and the relevant data will be stored in a central Canada Customs database, which can only be accessed by police and government departments. The new airport kiosks will verify the image of the traveller’s iris with the one on file to confirm his or her identity.

Lawson is somewhat assuaged by the fact that the system is not mandatory, but Canada Customs’ Jacques isn’t expecting much resistance. Within the first five years, she says their studies predict 200,000 Canadians will join to the CANPASS club—more than enough to cover the $39-million cost of the system.

The technology is already being used in airports in the Netherlands and is spreading across the States. The rationale may be security, but plans for CANPASS were in the works long before the WTC towers collapsed. Canada Customs researched different biometric technologies (the science of using digital technology to identify individuals based on their physical characteristics), and determined iris-scanning to be the most accurate and easy to use. They then granted the contract to IBM Canada, the folks who brought us the Air Canada express check-in kiosks. IBM has married its check-in kiosk with iris-scanning technology patented by Iridian Technologies to create the new kiosk. The first CANPASS units will be installed in Toronto and Vancouver International airports in March. Montreal’s Dorval will get its kiosks next June.

Pics of your peepers

Rob Ranieri, a practice leader at IBM, is confident in the kiosk he helped develop and how it stores data.

“A lot of other critical data is protected the same way,” he says. “Is there a concern? Only the same concern people would have about any new technology. I think they [Canada Customs] have checks and balances in place.”

The technology itself, Ranieri emphasizes, is pretty foolproof. So anyone with visions of eyeball theft can leave their Minority Report fantasies at check-in.

“The software has certain counter-measures built into it. This is truly something that can’t be stolen. You can’t leave an iris behind.”

Ranieri also points out that the scan itself poses no risk to the health of your eye. Unlike Tom Cruise’s shades with the built-in laser eye scanner that seemed to probe his eyeball with a nasty red beam, the CANPASS scan doesn’t emit light into the eye. “It’s like a high-quality digital photo,” says Ranieri.

The iris photo is what IBM calls a “unique identifier” because no two irises are alike. The scanner identifies 266 different features in the iris so no two people can be mixed up.

But despite these supposed miracles of sciences and security, Lawson still isn’t sold.

“I do know if you look at it historically, human beings tend to have a great deal of optimism about technology and it’s only after we start using it we learn that it doesn’t live up to expectations.

“It’s a matter of principle,” says Lawson. “Privacy is extremely important to us and to our society. This is about democracy and freedom. We should not be limiting those freedoms and that privacy unnecessarily. What we need to do is debate this.” :