Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) is giving vendors a little more time to submit their proposals for facial recognition technology contracts, according to a Global News article by Thomas Piller. While SGI had originally set a deadline of February 13, that has now been extended by two weeks.
SGI is looking for a company to help produce biometric identity cards and driver’s licences, an increasingly popular modernization initiative that saw a similar development recently in the US State of Washington. The main idea is to ensure that drivers whose licences have been suspended are not able to acquire new licences under assumed names, and to protect citizens generally against identity theft. Of course, the adoption of biometric technology into official documents is a major emerging trend around the world, given its potential to improve security and authentication processes.
Interestingly, Piller notes that Saskatchewan will actually be one of the last Canadian provinces to adopt facial recognition technology for its driver’s licences. Midwestern Canada has also seen another major biometric deployment recently in the Calgary Police Services’ adoption of NEC’s facial recognition system.
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February 23, 2015 – by Alex Perala
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