Ontario's high-tech driver's licences pose privacy risk: watchdog

The technology behind Ontario's new enhanced driver's licences will allow people to secretly track other people's activities and movements unless privacy protection is added, warns the province'sprivacy commissioner.

"The radio frequency identity (RFID) tag that will be embedded into the card can be read not only by authorized readers, but just as easily by unauthorized readers," Ann Cavoukian said in a statement accompanying the release of her 2008 annual report Wednesday.

Cavoukian called on Ontario's minister of transportation to include an on-off switch that will provide better privacy protection with the new licences, which are scheduled to start rolling out June 1.

On that date, the U.S. will start requiring a passport for all Canadian visitors entering the country at land crossings without an enhanced driver's licence.

According to the Ontario government, the RFID microchip inside the licence contains only a unique identification number and no other information. The licence will come with a sleeve that will protect it from being read.

However, Cavoukian suggested that because people are often required to produce their licences in many contexts away from the border, such as while banking and shopping, most drivers will abandon the use of the protective sleeve.

She favours including a feature that will prevent the RFID switch from being read unless it is turned on.

Cavoukian made recommendations about two other issues in her report. She said:

• Fees charged to patients for access to their own health records should be regulated. The privacy commissioner's office said it has received a number of complaints about the fees currently charged.
• All publicly funded Ontario universities, including affiliated universities,should be covered under the province's Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The recommendation came after the University of Toronto tried to block access to information about its affiliate, Victoria University, because it is not explicitly and separately named in the act.