BC New Enhanced Driver's License may Violate Privacy

Vancouver, British Columbia, April 6, 2009 — British Columbians can start applying for B.C.'s Enhanced Driver's Licence (EDL) – a driver's licence that also allows the cardholder to cross into the United States at land or water ports of entry between Canada and the United States with a single piece of identification. B.C. is also offering an Enhanced Identification Card (EIC) for persons who do not drive and for young adults over the age of 12 years.

...“The Government of Canada is taking the steps necessary to ensure that legitimate trade and travel across our border are not disrupted as a result of the Unites States Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative,” said Minister Van Loan. “Through our efforts, the U.S. Government now recognizes that enhanced driver's licences and enhanced identification cards can serve as an acceptable and secure alternative to passports at U.S. land and water border crossings.

The RFID system chosen is more commonly used to track cattle and other consumer goods and can be intercepted surreptitiously by anyone with an off-the-shelf reader. A number of privacy, consumer and social justice organizations demonstrated just how easy that is at a public forum in Ottawa last month. That unique number is not random, as the Quebec and Ontario governments insist, but essentially the same as your SIN number, so anyone with a reader could tie it to you and begin to develop a profile.

 

The licences have embedded radio-frequency identification (RFID) chips that can broadcast information wirelessly to a nearby reader. While that can make identifying people much faster and easier, it has also raised fears that the technology could be abused or hacked by ID thieves.

...Under the U.S. Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI), passports or EDLs will be required for all travellers entering the U.S. starting June 2009, so provinces are introducing EDLs on a voluntary basis to speed up border crossings.

Manitoba, Quebec, and British Columbia have already launched their programs.

REGINA -- The Saskatchewan Party government has put at least a temporary halt to legislation that would create enhanced drivers licenses in Saskatchewan after the province’s privacy watchdog raised “significant privacy issues” about the plan.

The decision comes just months ahead of the June 1, 2009 date where the United States will require either passports or other approved security document such as the enhanced drivers licences (EDLs).

New Brunswick has decided not to go forward with plans for enhanced driver's licences given that the cost to citizens would be almost as much as a passport. 

Nova Scotia is reported to be reconsidering now that New Brunswick is no longer going forward. 

PEI is also reported to have canceled their plans for an EDL, also citing cost.

The Council of Canadians, Consumers Council of Canada, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, la Ligue des droits et libertés, and the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group have demanded that the Harper government take these privacy concerns seriously and put an immediate moratorium on EDLs until Canadians can have an open debate about what we're getting into here.