Canada is borrowing another one from the US playbook. Visitors who require a visa to Canada will soon need to submit their biometrics (either iris scan, fingerprints, etc.) when entering Canada:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2...screening.html

I had the chance to listen to the Minister of Immigration explain the changes on Montreal radio yesterday. Apparently it's a broadening of a program already in place (expanding the biometric requirement to 150 visa-requiring countries from the current 30). And as it consists of requiring a digital photo and fingerprint, it's not altogether different from many countries' visa application procedures, not just the US's.

Honestly, I'm not sure this is such a bad thing... would be nice to be sure that the person you're letting into the country is the person you granted an entry visa to, no?

Canada loves copying the US to do the US favors by buying into paranoia US-style:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/check...ee-regime.html

Since I already have GE/Nexus, I guess this is a moot point. Not surprised Canada is doing this though...

You're not going to get an argument from me on that.

Again, it just doesn't sound terribly unreasonable to implement reasonable measures to ensure the person you've granted a visa to is the person you're letting into the country. In addition to a picture (which is pretty standard for many visa applications) there's a requirement to give your fingerprint (which is pretty standard on e-passports).

It's very unreasonable (to demand biometrics such as fingerprints along with other biodata) when governments are poor masters of privacy rights and such demanded information can be misused by those who get this info and missuse the info by doing so without the consent of the target of biometric capture. And to require this of visitors rather than citizens (in the case of Canadians and Americans) is because this all would risk an end the moment there is massive documented fraud where the fraud used stolen government-captured biometric data to create a massive mess for a bunch of Americans or Canadians. Note whose exempted from biometric capture on arrival in the U.S. and probably in Canada too.

Can't wait to see what the cyber-thieves do with US OPM records for a few million people when they get their non-face biometric data too. Massive ID theft related concerns is eventually going to make the government's target citizens of Canada and the U.S. too. Then the government will mismanage that data too. And then, voil�.

another reason to avoid North-America in general........go elsewhere for tourism.....
Before it was just the US, now Canada included(sadly)

Harper is going to change Canada so no one recognizes it

"Can't wait to see what the cyber-thieves do with US OPM records for a few million people when they get their non-face biometric data too."

Oh yeah, like mere hackers are going to be able to break into highly guarded gov't databases in order to steal personal information which they'll use for their own ends. You got some nerve.

Have some nerve? Great, for without nerves, what's the point of a brain?

And mere hackers, within government and/or beyond government, have broken into highly guarded government databases and used some such data for their own ends. And we see that what happens in the U.S. is increasing copied by Harper's Canada.