WEF’s Digital ID Pilot Project in Travel Has Stalled, Transport Canada Says

An initiative by the World Economic Forum (WEF) to work with Canada to test the use of digital identities in travel has been delayed due to the pandemic, Transport Canada said.

Details about the WEF’s project, called Known Traveler Digital Identity (KTDI), emerged in June through a ministry inquiry filed by Conservative MP Leslyn Lewis.

“The government has finally denied it has a $105.3 million contract with the World Economic Forum for Digital IDs for Known Travelers. See order form here. No, it’s a contractual fact!” murmured Lewis, October 5th, Link Contact us.

Canadian involvement in pilot projects formal It’s a statement since it came out in 2018, and the dollar figures associated with it are listed in Budget 2021.

Lewis Said During his campaign for leadership this summer, he said he would exclude Canada from the project if he was elected prime minister.

The Netherlands is another country participating in the WEF initiative.other participant These include Montreal Trudeau and Toronto Pearson Airports, Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, Air Canada, Royal Dutch Airlines, and IT and services company Accenture.

Implementing a broader digital identity system in society is the WEF’s “urgent” goal.

“People, organizations, and internet-enabled devices are all interacting with each other virtually, so there is an urgent need for solutions that enable us to establish trust and engage in meaningful interactions between ourselves and others in the digital realm. Required WEF Digital ID guide For executives.

Commonwealth and provincial government In Canada, we are working to implement our respective programs.

world economic forum paper The KTDI, published in 2021, says Canadians are “demanding” centralized identity management in Canada.

“Digital identification infrastructure in Canada and other similar countries could benefit from a joint public-private approach, which would enable interoperability with different systems in the travel ecosystem, It facilitates seamless traveler interactions, such as going through security at the airport to board the plane, then crossing the border to pick up a rental car and check into a hotel,” said the paper.

The WEF also said the KTDI could be expanded to include information such as vaccination certificates.

“The need for trusted digital travel credentials as a result of COVID-19 is paramount and clearly, from the variety of solutions that have emerged, the pandemic has forced stakeholders to design trusted digital credentials for travel. It served as a burning platform to encourage us to do it right.”

delay in implementation

In an inquiry to the ministry, Transport Canada said the project had not started because of the pandemic and was suffering from delays in implementation, with no start date specified.

financial post report On October 5, the Netherlands suspended the project due to a “change in priorities”, quoting Dutch Immigration Minister Eric van der Berg, who said, “Currently, there are no concrete plans to implement a KTDI pilot. No,’ he said.

According to Transport Canada, the program is designed to allow travelers to opt in and opt out.

The ministry did not disclose what types of collected data were shared or which governments or third parties received it, but said the information was not available.

“However, the proposed information shared will include elements derived from the ePassport used for the pilot,” Transport Canada said.

of e-passport is a biometric passport with an electronic chip encoded with the owner’s biodata and a digital photo.

Transport said no information was available on the KTDI technology being tested by the government.

“However, prior to the postponement of the pilot, the proposed technologies to be used included: distributed ledger technology; biometric technology; and cryptography.”

A WEF KTDI paper says the Canadian government has tested the technology.

He also said, “All partners are proud to have jointly developed the KTDI mobile application,” which presumably included testing.

The Epoch Times reached out to the WEF for comment but did not immediately hear back.