BIOMETRICS: Scanners replace keys, locks
JOHN BERMINGHAM
Province
Kyrani Kanavaros of James Schouw and Associates demonstrates the new device. WAYNE LEIDENFROST — THE PROVINCE
Yaletown developer James Schouw has his fingerprints all over his latest project, B.C.’s first biometric condo. Residents in the Grace project at 499 Drake can enter only by passing their finger over a palm-sized reader. The system records who’s entering through the front door, elevators, parking garage and bike storage. A concierge scans visitors’ fingerprints for temporary access. “We don’t worry that someone came home in the middle of the night and lost their key somewhere,” Schouw said yesterday. “It’s pretty darn difficult to lose your fingerprint,” he said. Warren Kimmel, who installed the system through his Vancouver company Fingerprint-IT, said biometric accesscontrol came out of the U.S. and Israeli military but is now being used by companies to clock workers in and out. And instead of sending fingerprints of criminals off to the lab, police cars carry print-readers that can instantly match prints against most-wanted lists. “You don’t want to carry your keys around with you everywhere,” said Kimmel, 35.
Jason Gratl, president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said condo residents are giving their consent for mutual security.
“There might be a residual concern . . . that the biometric information not fall into the wrong hands,” he said. “Is this is a big deal, though? It’s not huge.”
Kimmel said only police and building managers can access the biometric records, stored as lists of numbers.
“The police are just getting a more accurate record of what they could get before,” he said. “There are no civil-liberties concerns.”