Why Is Government Collecting Your Biometric Data?
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Photo courtesy Alternet.org
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Tana Ganeva is AlterNet’s managing editor. She is bringing to light some very disturbing questions regarding the government’s use of biometric data-base collection within America’s civilian masses, by reposting Jennifer Lynch’s work on biometric data collection. Please go to the original site to read this article in full.
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June 24, 2012: EFF via AlterNet
The next time you get pulled over, watch for a blocky, black gadget attached to the officer’s iPhone. That’s the MORIS device, one of many mobile fingerprint and biometric scanners proliferating in police departments around the country. MORIS is designed to ascertain identity and dig up an unsavory past, but
that’s not all: the device can also gather iris scans, fingerprints, and photos searchable with face recognition technology.
Mobile scanners like MORIS are just one of the many ways biometric data (unique, identifying physical features including fingerprints, DNA or iris scans) is collected and potentially fed into government and private biometric databases that have swelled in both size and sophistication in the decade after 9/11.
The Department of Justice is expanding its fingerprint database to include iris scans, photos searchable with face recognition technology, scars, tattoos, and measures of voice and gait. The DoD collects iris scans, prints and face recognition photos from anyone coming in and out of Afghanistan; Department of Homeland Security gathers face recognition photos and fingerprints from people entering the U.S. Even motor vehicle departments in many states use face recognition technology to ID people when they get their licenses, and they tend to be cooperative with criminal investigations. The big agencies are also increasingly making their databases interoperable, so an immigrant’s print that lands in the DHS database (IDENT) can be accessed by the FBI. Information is also shared with foreign governments and private companies.
In a recent EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) report, Jennifer Lynch chronicles the growth of biometric databases that contain everything from fingerprints to DNA to iris scans and face recognition images. Unsurprisingly, immigrants are one of the likeliest targets; Lynch talks about the LAPD’s habit of cruising streets where day laborers gather and picking up their fingerprints with mobile scanners. The Secure Communities program, a more large-scale and catastrophic example, lets police send fingerprints to the FBI, which can share the information with DHS, which then deploys ICE to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.
AlterNet spoke with Lynch about the expansion of biometric data collection, the growth of databases and the impact on increased surveillance on citizens and immigrants alike.
Tana Ganeva: The scope of this data collection is so overwhelming. What are they trying to collect and why?
Jennifer Lynch: I totally agree that the scope of data collection is overwhelming. There’s just so much that the federal government collects at this point. And there’s so much data sharing going on between agencies, so many points of interaction with the government where data is collected. The data is pretty massive at this point.
Some of the key places the government collects data are at any kind of border crossing, if you’re not a US citizen — or what they call a “non-US person” — or if you interact with the criminal justice system. And those are the two main ways that your data can be collected by the government.
TG: By “interact” with the criminal justice system, you don’t mean just a conviction, but any encounter with police, like getting pulled over, right? You don’t actually have to be guilty of something?
JL: Yes, any sort of arrest, and at this point, it could be as minimal as being stopped for a moving violation, because lots of police officers carry mobile fingerprint scanners. As I talked about in the report, even if you’re just standing in the street corner in Los Angeles, trying to get a job, you can get your fingerprints scanned. So there are a number of ways even just the common citizen could have their fingerprints collected by the federal government.
Another example that happens pretty frequently is in a domestic violence situation. Let’s say someone calls the cops because he or she is being abused, and the cops get there and they’re not sure who instigated it and they pick up both parties. And so even in that situation the victim could have their fingerprints collected.
The same thing happens at border crossings for people who are non-US citizens: fingerprints are collected. At this point it’s a 10 print scan — it used to be your index finger or thumb but now it’s all 10 fingerprints. It’s also a photo, and the FBI now has a facial recognition database and the DHS is building out their facial recognition database as well.
TG: So it’s not just fingerprints — that’s sort of a holdover from the ’90s — they’re also expanding what they collect, like face recognition photos and iris scans.
JL: It’s interesting because those of us in the civil liberties world have two main arguments. One is that this is an infringement of our privacy rights and our right to have certain things kept private from the government. But another argument is that this data isn’t accurate, and this is especially true of immigration databases — the data is notoriously inaccurate, but also DNA collection. There have been lots of cases where DNA has been thrown out. So what the federal government is saying now is that because the data can be inaccurate, or let’s say someone doesn’t have fingerprints anymore if they’re a laborer or something, the government can collect more data to make the database more accurate.
The problem with that is that it just increases the ability of the federal government to track people. Once facial recognition becomes more accurate — you know, there are cameras everywhere in our world — not just ones controlled by the government, there are also private cameras and street corner cameras.
-Please read entire article here-
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July 1st, 2012 at 11:16 am
Acxiom Corp: The ‘faceless organization that knows everything about you’ An Arkansas company you’ve probably never heard of knows more about you than some of your friends, Google, and even the FBI — and it’s selling your data POSTED ON JUNE 20, 2012
http://theweek.com/article/index/229508/acxiom-corp-the-faceless-organization-that-knows-everything-about-you
July 9th, 2012 at 3:52 pm
At some point ( if not already ) they will be able to created a genetic virus that can kill just one person, perhaps YOU!
July 27th, 2012 at 4:46 am
Sounds like something the Anti Christ would use