The Canadian province of Saskatchewan is planning to implement facial recognition technology in its driver’s licence program.
The plan comes as Saskatchewan Government Insurance reaches the end of its current five-year license contract set for next March, with introduction of the facial recognition program planned for the following August. The technology will be provided by Veridos Canada, Inc.
Essentially, Veridos’ system will be used to ensure that duplicate licenses are not issued by scanning applicants’ faces against a comprehensive database. In that sense it’s going to be similar to systems recently introduced in Arizona, whose Department of Transportation saw an 860 percent increase in fraud detection by using facial recognition technology; and in Ireland, where the technology has been used to cut down on welfare fraud.
It’s a positive development, but Saskatchewan is not actually so far ahead of the technological curve compared to its peers; it will be the last province in the country to introduce such technology.
Sources: Global News, CBC News Saskatchewan
Follow Us