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US Immigration Implements Biometric-based Border
scubacuda writes "The NY Times reports (free registration) that immigrations officials are putting in place a sophisticated new identification system that uses ID cards encrypted with digital photos, signatures, biographical information and fingerprints that have been issued by the State Department and the Immigration and Naturalization Service by the millions over the last five years. "With more information systems, there are more opportunities for abuse," said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which is pushing the government to release more information on its biometric plans."
This year's George Orwell award is going to whoever built this system? Well, congratulation!
TOo bad Orwell's novel was not "2004" I mean i realize it is 2003 but think of what it is going to be like next year.
---
Outwards? Inwards? Both ways?
Does this mean that we draft dodge to canada anymore?
The most interesting (to me) comment in the article (which isn't elaborated further) is:
The legislation also requires foreign governments to use biometric technology in passports.
What if countries refuse? -- and I can't really see the rest of the world adding biometrics to their passports just becuase the US tells them to.
Being British, I don't currently require a visa for a short (up to 3 months?) visit to the US. I guess if Europe doesn't go along with these demands, I'm going to need a visa (which, presumably, will have biometrics embedded in it).
Those who sacrifice essential... blah blah blah.... deserve neither... blah blah blah.
Oooh, isn't this like 1984?
Now all we need is some pointless ranting from "Fantastic Lad", and we have a fully complete YRO article!!!
Fuck you all.
Didn't we see this in some movie? I don't like the idea at all.
that famous American puppet-state, Australia, is doing the same thing.
It was an Ident-i-Eeze, and was a very naughty and silly thing for Harl to have lying around in his wallet, though it was perfectly understandable. There were so many different ways in which you were required to provide absolute proof of your identity these days that life could easily become extremely tiresome just from that factor alone, never mind the deeper existential problems of trying to function as a coherent consciousness in an epistemologically ambiguous physical universe. Just look at cash point machines, for instance. Queues of people standing around waiting to have their fingerprints read, their retinas scanned, bits of skin scraped from the nape of the neck and undergoing instant (or nearly instant --- a good six or seven seconds in tedious reality) genetic analysis, then having to answer trick questions about members of their family they didn't even remember they had, and about their recorded preferences for tablecloth colours. And that was just to get a bit of spare cash for the weekend. If you were trying to raise a loan for a jetcar, sign a missile treaty or pay an entire restaurant bill things could get really trying.
Hence the Ident-i-Eeze. This encoded every single piece of information about you, your body and your life into one all- purpose machine-readable card that you could then carry around in your wallet, and therefore represented technology's greatest triumph to date over both itself and plain common sense.
Now all we need is some way to get all the illegal aliens to get this groovy new identification card...
Now if only the INS could manage to not screw up my friend's citizenship request.
If Mr. Edison had thought smarter he wouldn't sweat as much. --Nikola Tesla
Hitler never killed his own people and then blamed someone else!
Give him some credit! Bush is worse!
It's an interesting change in the equation involving security and freedom; prior to September 11th, measures like this and the concentration of intelligence in one big department, and even things like the patriotic acts, would have been much more impopular. I live in a country (Portugal, in Europe) where citizens get an ID card when they are around 12. That would probably be considered inadequate and an invasion of privacy in the United States, but partly driven by the fear brought by the terrorist attacks and maybe also as a window of opportunity that politicians have taken advantage of, it is happening. I wonder what the sentiments of the majority of the population are.
any safer. Remember that the 911 terrorists had valid Saudi (and other) papers. This scheme would not have saved any lives had it been implemented before 911.
It smells like pork barrel to me.
Taped to the window was a very official looking green card for a Mrs. Janet Reno.
A firewall can not protect you from yourself. Turn off what you do not need. Do not use the firewall to do your work.
You know, every time I see words essentially saying "Reg blah blah", I think to myself, "What a complete waste of time that was - now even the 10% who usually -do- read the articles aren't going to."
Maybe other people really enjoy registering at sites around the web (perhaps it's a fetish like cosplay - or more like Seti@Home units), but I don't - why should I have to?
If it's such a good article, why not search to see if it is anywhere else? Or, copy it here?
Much better!
He would have to have written (or at least had it first published) in 2040.
/. readers, well, the majority, I promise you, will not think too much of it, and will take the mark, and will have a bio-chip implanted on you.
Think about it.
On another thought, we will never become aware of the time when we are in the times of Big Brother.
Because everything we see will become common place and accepted, slowy but surely, we will become oblivious to the ammoutn of control the government will or already does have over us...
Then they WILL force the mark of the beast, and all you
Heck half of you will try and get the linux kernel to compile on it.
Read Revelation chapter 13. (NIV Bible)
Once someone steals your identity, you can't change it like a PIN. So, if it has a loophole, you are fuX0Red.
P IRACY>
R OUGHREFERENCETOPIRACY>> T HROUGHUSINGDUMBFAKETAGS>
<OBKARMAWHORETHROUGHUSINGDUMBFAKETAGS>
<OBCONS
Of course, no one touting this technology will say this in their marketing to governments. They'll just say it's perfect security.
</OBCONSPIRACY>
<OBKARMAWHORETHROUGHFUNNYMODS>
<OBKARMAWHORETH
Thinking about it, conspiracy was brought to you by the words "con", and "piracy".
</OBKARMAWHORETHROUGHREFERENCETOPIRACY
</OBKARMAWHORETHROUGHFUNNYMODS>
</OBKARMAWHORE
http://pcblues.com - Digits and Wood
it is possible for all these cards to be duplicated / falsified.
a searchable db - available for nominated organisations like banks
contining a social secutity# photo address and dob would do.
The biggest problem with the Visa Waiver program is that when you leave the US (i.e. checking in for your flight) the Airlines (AFAIK) don't bother returning the waiver forms back to the immigration services.
I visited Canada a couple of weeks before my return home, on a maxxed out visit to the US (i.e. 88 days out of the 90 day max)... and talk about a breaking of balls exercise (i.e. they wanted to deport me thinking I'd broken the terms of my waiver when in fact I hadn't), it was not fun. I know it seems US immigration officers seem to have a personality bypass in general... but this was worse (they also give their own people shit when returning, must be the rush of authority). I think I also bore the brunt of the fact that 5 people with British passports came through the same border a week or two before (although I was being hunted by the FBI and pointed the finger at the others to try and avoid any interest in him).
The crux of it is, is that I ain't visiting the US for a year or two until I can get something a little more flexible than the Visa waiver... and I don't know what data they were putting in their computers when I got the 20 questions (in 30 seconds), you can never tell. Oh well, at least it is a big warmer back in Blighty than the east coast has been.
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
The machines foiled a variety of sophisticated counterfeit attempts, officials said. Inspectors spotted cards on which the front photograph was changed to match the impostor, but the photograph encrypted in the back was still of the original person.
So remember folks, if the PATRIOT act 2 is passed, using encryption to change the ID picture will give you 5 years in jail on top of whatever other penelty! Hooray!
,
faeryman
Knock Knock!
Who's there?
Mark
Mark Who?
Mark of The Beast
Sadly, we're one step closer to the Mark of The Beast technology.
From reading the article, it appears that the information on the card isn't stored in a central database, but is instead stored directly on the card in an encrypted form. Imagine the chaos if the encryption algorithm and key were discovered. Free entry for everyone!
...of that old Visa commercial, where the slightly shady-looking trenchcoat-wearing (stereotype - damn you Visa) guy walks into a futuristic supermarket, is tailed by the security guard, and walks around stuffing shit into his coat. And then as he's leaving, he's scanned, charged, and the guard reminds him to not forget his receipt.
Sorry, that's just immediately what it made me think of. Huge lines of people just stepping through biometric authenticator portals, being scanned, and shipped off on their way. Why don't they just put the freaking chip in the backs of our heads?
Informatus Technologicus
This project has been in the works for almost 10 years, starting with the INS Accellerated Passenger Program (INSPASS) that used hand-geometry encoded as OCR-A text on a credit-card.
Some time after that project, fingerprints were coupled with photos to track illegal aliens as they came across the border. So someone who got caught in El Paso would come up on the system in San Deigo.
I believe that was back in 1995 when I worked on those contracts.
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You're white - welcome to Britain!
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Read my sig if you like, but I'll never see yours, thanks to Discussions, Viewing, Disable sigs...
It seems as if the American government actually WANTS its 9 million illegal immigrants to drive down wages, suck up welfare disproporationately (bankrupting state governments like California), and completely change the demographics of the country to minority-white within decades.
They will spend millions of dollars on ID cards to hassle the honest immigrants, while thousands invade through our porous border every year. The only thing they should be spending money on right now is higher walls and more border guards, not ID cards.
In fact, it's gotten so bad, we should use the money to send our troops to the US-Mexico border before instead of Iraq. America is overpopulated as it is, and we don't need ILLEGAL immigration turning us into a third world country.
Economic Costs of Illegal Immigration
it is an imigration tool. if you are here on a temporary visa then you should be tracked while you are in the country....why should a visa holder be trusted? yes I sound paranoid but think about it...if you let strange people into your house everyday so they can use the phone or the bathroom would you not watch them to make sure they actualy go in the bathroom and watch them while they are on the phone?
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
http://www.pbs.org/now/politics/lewis.html#docs
I expected to see this all over the Sunday papers. I'm not home, so I don't know if the talking heads are discussing it or not.
National borders have used identification credentials (passports) with a second-factor biometric (photographs) for decades. The difference is that the old biometric was analog, and was performed manually by a customs agent, and the new one is digital.
The slashdot crowd should get up in arms about places where biometrics are used where governments/corporations have no right or requirement of knowing exactly who you are. Disneyland shouldn't need my fingerprint to sell me a ride on Magic Mountain.
Border crossings are a case where the governments absolutely SHOULD know exactly who you are. That's the entire point of something like a passport, and a second or third authentication factor will only help make this identification more accurate.
This is a completely separate issue from whether those resulting biometrics should be stored in a linked database that is accessible for law enforcement. This should be addressed through legislation, or biometrics should be chosen that would not directly help in law enforcement (e.g. iris scans, hand geometry, etc.).
Why should US people going in other country be trusted ? Let us force the US have biometric Visa and passeport with finger print, saliva sample, skin and DNA sample, hair sample all on a chip, face recognition on 100 points etc... How would you think the US epople would react that the EU ask that from them ? I seriously doubt that most of you would accept this lightly without heavy protest.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
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visit randi.org
The cool thing about biometric-based ID systems is they can be completely automated. A TV camera and a laser - if someone approaches and their retina is not on file, zap!
Maybe not such a good idea on second thoughts.
Well, if you have a look at the form DS-157 [1] (supplement application for getting a Visa for the US) i'm sort of scared. They really want to know a lot, like my former rank in the forces? Special education in firearms, nuclear and biological warfare? All males in the age from 16-45 are obliged to fill this one out. But come on, be honest: the real bad guys will lie in that form, won't they? And the innocent will be punished for stupidity if they fill out something wrong? Is it really necessary for the US government to know who my last two former employers were?
Anyway: I'm neither a US citizen nor a US resident, but stuff like that seems to be common in all over the world since 911.
Alex.
[1] http://travel.state.gov/DS-0157.pdf
You look like a million dollars. All green and wrinkled.
Absolutely, but these issues are separate from the question of whether a digital biometric should be represented on passport/border/identification documents.
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Keep your packets off my GNU/Girlfriend!
Learn the facts corporate media doesn't want you to know!
Just the term 'law-abiding citizens' means only the law applies to us who follow the law. Criminals and terrorists need not apply. I am married to a foreign national, from an allied country at that, and the amount of cost in terms of time and money for my wife to live in the U.S. is ridiculous. Now they want her biometric info? Sheesh.
I have no problem with people coming to the U.S. - but if you want to come in, have some patience, fill out the paper work and stand in line like everyone else. Just ask a legal immigrant about the fairness of letting anyone in. A lot of people moved here to get AWAY from the criminal element, only to discover that the criminals can just walk in!
Other things created to make us 'safe':
- Gun Control (the biggest joke)
- Curent flying regulations with respect to security
- Printing the California Driver's handbook in 107 different languages.....
Common Sense is no longer on the books......
Self Defense - A Human Right www.a-human-right.com
Slashdot is only moderated by people with no sense of humor.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the communist party?
Of course you'll lie if you should say yes, but THEY WANT YOU TO - it's the lie that lets them deport (or imprison) you. If you answer yes then you don't get the visa, if you answer no then you do time. Simple.
Watch this Heartland Institute video
I waited almost 18 months for my adjustment interview that approved me for a green card. I'm still waiting for that precious piece of plastic a whole 12 months later which means I will be visting my local field office soon and queuing for hours on end just to get another "temporary evidence of lawful residence" stamp in my passport.
When I got my drivers license it took me less than an hour and my license was printed in 10 minutes. It's the same technology.
Rather than wasting time on this pointless new system the INS should be spending money on getting itself organised, and chasing down illegal immigrants.
Answer: the rest of the world, not the proud America.
The Californian oranges at the WalMart store would have been pretty much expensive if it were not for the damn cheap labor from the illegal Hispanic immigrants. Nike would not be able to sell its Nike sneakers were it not for the Chinese labor. There are so many Cafe's such as Starbucks all over the US, but I haven't seen any coffee seling in US stores with the proud mark of "Made in USA" with an Amrican flag, which also means that we appeal to the patriotism of our American people so that we can sell this expensive product with bad quality.
I am not a Chinese, but it is absolutely true what the Chinese prime minister said in a speech at MIT during his visit to America. He showed a pair of Nike shoes and told the audience that he liked it because of its cheap price and great quality. Then he went on to say that he is proud of Chinese people because Chinese laborers work in a condition where no American laborers would work with such a cheap wage offer. And he advanced to his main point: the rational response from America will be to compensate this great Chinese labor with the export of its superior technologies, which China is still incapable of. Won't it be good for the benefit of both parties?
The problem is that it is only American people who do not know this fact. It is okay for American people to consume the benefit from outside their country. However, they at least need to understand (and hopefully be thankful of) the value of the labor from the unknown people outside.
These days, American people consistently talk about globalization of the world economy. I personally agree to the proposal. It seems one of the best possible ways to develop the poor regions on the earth. However, if America continues to separate itself from the outside world with a stupid excuse of national security, and to dominate outside world with its current power, rather than to cooperate, I don't want to take America into the globalized world economy. The rest of world will ignore America.
Fortunately, the American continent has a vast deal of natural resources. But American people will suffer from the expensive price for oranges if the isolation happens. I don't want to see average Americans not being able to afford oranges in WalMart store.
I don't know why Americans are going in this direction these days. Where are the great American openess and the belief in liberty?
You Americans are exempt from the biometric hassles and additional costs to enter America. That's why this is stupid. Is there any reason to believe that Americans can be trusted?
I won't object it if American people too go through the same inconvenience like foreign people. This is actually a segregation, although you Americans don't like to hear it.
The other point is that the 9/11 terrorists had perfectly valid papers.
If biometric ID on border IDs gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling, that makes one of us.
I think Osama's boys are laughing, and the joke is on us.
Tech Public Policy stuff
Why are the bad guys ABLE to get valid papers?
/. and the conspiracy theorists it wont go over board.
Because the system is bogged down with out of date systems and procedures. Automating and updating the system HAS to occur if there is going to be any hope of finding and preventing the bad guys from getting in.
Is it ripe for potential abuse - of course but so are social security numbers. It is a necessary step and hopefully with ever vigilant oversight from
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