Facial recognition at Canadian airports

Starting next Tuesday, customers who are boarding domestic Air Canada flights at Vancouver International Airport will be able to walk onto the plane without presenting their drivers’ licence. Well, on the majority of those flights, at least. They also won’t be asked to present their passports or any other form of physical identification. That’s because the airline is introducing facial recognition technology, making it the first airline in this country to deploy the software. It’s all part of a broader effort to streamline the boarding process. Do the negatives of this decision outweigh the efficient positives? We open the debate floor with privacy expert John Wunderlich and former Ontario Privacy Commissioner Ann Cavoukian.