B.C. looking at biometrics for driver’s licenses

B.C.’s provincial government is developing a policy on using biometrics for drivers’ licences, and ICBC is conducting a study of the issue, according to a report in The Vancouver Province.”This isn’t too far down the road in terms of making decisions,” B.C. Solicitor General John Les said in an interview with The Province.The Province reported Les as saying work was already underway on the ”next generation” of drivers’ licences and the role of biometrics in them.Biometrics refers to technologies that use distinguishing traits fingerprints, hand geometries, and facial or retinal scans as means of personal identification.”We need to be careful we don’t start reaching for things that are not practical and would meet with some resistance, as new technology sometimes does,” Les is quoted as saying in The Province. ”We want to ensure that when cards like that are issued, they are as widely useful as possible.”If they can be used to absolutely, positively prove identification, I think that’s a good thing.”An ICBC representative said the B.C. government auto insurer is also studying the potential use of biometrics for drivers’ licenses. “‘We don’t have any immediate plans to start using it, but we are looking at it for the future,” ICBC spokesman Doug Henderson told The Province.