Switzerland’s citizens are set to vote on whether or not they want passports and ID cards embedded with chips containing biometric information, according to a Swiss Info article. This past March the Swiss parliament approved a country-wide implementation of biometric passports and ID cards for their citizens, however, the program’s opponents collected 55,000 signatures to oppose it.

The system was a requirement of Switzerland signed Schengen open-border treaty; however, it has been suspended under privacy and security concerns by its political and civil opponents.

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Following a seven year trial for the technology, Australia is ready to being full implementation of facial recognition checkpoints for border control at their airports called SmartGate, according to a ZDNet article. The system has already been implemented at Qantas, Brisbane, Cairns and Melbourne for Australians with biometric chip embedded e-passports and is expected to be fully rolled-out by June 2009. 

Colorado-based CPI Card Group, a financial and commercial card producer, is expanding north with the acquisition of a Canadian facility, Metaca, located in Concord, Ontario. According to CPI, with the rollout of EMV, dual interface and contactless chip technology, Canada seemed the logical next step in its strategic vision of expanding internationally.

The new full service bureau facility will be named CPI Card Group - Canada. Its president will be Anna Rossetti, formerly president of Giesecke & Devrient in Canada. 

Secure identity provider HID Global has rolled out its latest card personalization software, Asure ID 2009, that features an intuitive user interface and incorporates user-tested tools that make ID card design, data entry and data management easy for any type of user. In addition, Asure ID 2009 comes with an underlying software architecture built on the Microsoft .NET technology platform. 

HID Global announced that it has been selected to supply its Fargo HDP5000-LC printer/encoders to the U.S. Department of Defense Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC).

As part of the DMDC’s migration to the next generation of ID card printers, the HDP5000-LC units will be utilized throughout the DMDC. The primary use of the Fargo HDP5000-LC printer will be to support the DOD’s Common Access Card (CAC) program, which annually produces over 3 million technology cards. The FIPS 201-compliant printer will be offered as a solution via a contract recently awarded to Telos Corporation of Ashburn, Va. This one-year contract has four single-year extensions.