FBI to create vast biometrics database
The Washington Post reports today that the FBI is launching a $1 billion project to build the world's largest database of individuals' physical characteristics. The effort would give the American government unprecedented abilities to ID people here and overseas. Snip:
Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law.Link"Bigger. Faster. Better. That's the bottom line," said Thomas E. Bush III , assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services Division, which operates the database from its headquarters in the Appalachian foothills.
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I bet they'll be able to keep all that information from leaking through any human or computer errors.
Not only does this seem like a plan destined to fail (spectacularly) somewhere down the road, T.E. Bush III didn't even get the Daft Punk quote right...
Thanks Mr The Third, this will make us all feel so much safer.
BTW, how many CDs will that come on?
Eric Arthur Blair must be wincing in pain here. We're a generation away from identity as we know it - and what do we really know about that anyway...
Why don't they just put us all in cages and be done with it already?
Stop that man! He walks like a Libertarian!
Homeland Insecurity at it's finest.
This will be designed to fail.
They won't be keeping finger prints, iris snapshots, etc.: they'll be keeping computer records of the same. Too few "points" on a fingerprint to save time/money, and more people will start sharing the same fingerprint records. Ditto for any other biometric.
Not that the system will be at fault. You will be convicted and sentenced as "Rollo the mad-dog rapist", because "the computer proved it was you", while Rollo continues his merry spree.
As for sharing data internationally, not all law enforcement agencies use the same file formats to store the same type of biometric data. Rollo could skip from the US to Germany, and the StatzPolizei wouldn't know they had an old lag on their turf.
Oh hang on? You say this is only for criminals? Didn't you know? Nobody's innocent, Citizen: we just need to determine the level of your guilt...
Not content with the way things are, the puppeteer lays down a Bush III...
soops
FIGHT THE SYSTEM.
It'll work fine till the government forces mandatory Vista upgrades across the board..
THANK YOU MICROSOFT!
"This jobs isn't really how y'know shows like CSI make it out to be. I mean when I first joined the force I assumed there was semen on everything! And there was some sort of semen database that had every bad guy's semen in it. There isn't! That doesn't exist! It'd be nice. Like that crime scene today; If the man had ejaculated and then punched you in the face, we would have a real good shot at catching him! But no.. just a punch in the face, no semen... Story of my life..."
Recently, my daughter's high school contracted with a private corporation to enact a new system for purchasing school lunches, using biometric scanners. The kids who wanted to use the system had to submit to being fingerprinted by said corporation. Absolutely no information or assurances were given that the fingerprints weren't going to be re-sold to 3rd parties...like the FBI, for instance.
We opted not to take part in the system. Cash is king.
Mostly this stuff gets sent submitted to IAFIS via email. Fingerprints and such are wrapped up in a binary format, the specification of which can be found here:
http://www.fbi.gov/hq/cjisd/iafis/efts71/cover.htm
State of Colorado already got some of my biometric data so I could get a drivers license. This sort of effort is why I put off trading in my out of state license for three years. I was hoping I would move again before giving my print to the man, but things didn't work out that way.