The witness was careful in the choice of words and guarded the comments with something to the effect of not being yet advised by the minister, so the parameters were laid down prior to testimony.
The collection of personal information is delicate. DFATD correctly has illuminated areas of concern operationally. Canada is in the business of guarding private information, and relative to other countries, western countries, we do a good job.
Is it going to be a perfect system? No. I took the opportunity to speak yesterday with retired senior public servants who worked in the public sector information agency during their careers to learn how to defeat biometric systems. The technology is there to defeat biometrics systems. No system is perfect.
DFATD may have legitimate concerns regarding the intake and storage. The concerns are expressed and the function of this process is to layer up and protect what has been identified by DFATD as a potential information leakage source.
So yes, I can echo the concerns. It's all about resources to build up the castle walls ever higher, if you don't mind the anachronism.