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SGI chooses vendor for driver’s licence production services, facial recognition could help enhance security and fight fraud


October 22, 2015   by Canadian Underwriter


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Saskatchewan Government Insurance has awarded Veridos Canada Inc. with the contract to produce the province’s driver’s licences and identification cards, as well as provide facial recognition and photo capture enhancement.

“With this move to facial recognition, Saskatchewan will join all other Canadian provinces that are using facial recognition technology in their driver’s licensing programs,” notes a statement Thursday from SGI.

Facial recognition could help enhance security and fight auto insurance fraud in Saskatchewan

The technology is expected to enhance security and serve as a useful in protecting against fraud, SGI points out. “It will protect Saskatchewan residents from identity theft and prevent people from obtaining multiple licences and/or ID cards. It will also improve road safety by preventing suspended drivers from using a false identity to get a licence,” the statement adds.

A media backgrounder from SGI explains how facial recognition technology works. When a person goes to renew or get a new licence/photo ID card, the process is as follows:

  • the customer’s photo is taken;
  • the photo is enrolled into the facial recognition system;
  • the facial recognition system creates a numeric template of the photo by using landmarks on the customer’s face;
  • the system compares the numeric template of the new photo to the numeric template of the customer’s previous one; and
  • the system compares the numeric template of the customer’s photo to the numeric template of all other photos in the database, to confirm the photo is not associated with any other customer in the database.

Selected after taking part in a Request for Proposal process, Veridos Canada will begin card production services this coming April (SGI’s current five-year contract for driver’s licence and identification card production expires at the end of March) and SGI plans to begin using facial recognition in August.

There will be no additional costs for driver’s licences/photo ID cards.


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