FBI To Spend $1B Expanding Fingerprint Database

mytrip and other readers alerted us to news that the FBI is about to announce the awarding of a $1B, 10-year contract to expand its fingerprint database to incorporate other biometrics — palm prints, iris scans, scars, tattoos, possibly facial shape — "Whatever the biometric that comes down the road, we need to be able to plug that in and play," an FBI spokesman is quoted. Barry Steinhardt of the ACLU sounded the cautionary note: "This had started out being a program to track or identify criminals. Now we're talking about large swaths of the population — workers, volunteers in youth programs. Eventually, it's going to be everybody."

Comments

Superbad, anyone?

[kaos07]

Why bother with scars and tattoos? What we really is a National Semen Database just in case the criminal ejaculates all over the scene of the crime. The FBI could even use sperm banks as a front!

Re:Superbad, anyone?

[Slak]

but only criminals hide their genitals in public....

My two cents...

[Anonymous Coward]

Wouldn't it be easier to just tattoo everyone with a number? Then anyone who is caught doing something "wrong" can be incarcerating in reeducation camps? Wouldn't this be a lot easier to do than to try getting everyone's biometrics over a long course of time? I mean, didn't Hitler have the idea down right, although it started out with only one section of society, and not everyone?

Re:My two cents...

[Asic Eng]

Wouldn't it be easier to just tattoo everyone with a number?

Not really - they wouldn't leave traces of the tattoo around.

The Mafia wants this

[Anne Thwacks]

The criminal fraternity must be ready to pay a fortune for this!

Expect the entire database to be for sale world-wide in weeks.

And buy some EDS shares NOW.

biometrics is the future

[noremorse10]

The FBI will be awarding the 10 year, 1 billion dollar contract in the next few days to one of the large system integrators: IBM, Lockheed or Northrop. But within the next 6 months the biometric portion will be awarded for running the fingerprint database. The favorite is Cogent Systems (COGT) a leader in the biometric space. They run the biometric database for the US_VISIT program and other large scale fingerprint biometric identification systems around the world. See video about them http://www.cogentsystems.com/video.asp

If you've done nothing wrong

[yada21]

If you've done nothing wrong ,you have nothing to fear. Just so long as they don't redifine what's wrong, with retro-active effect.

Re:If you've done nothing wrong

[Loibisch]

If you've done nothing wrong ,you have nothing to fear. Just so long as they don't redifine what's wrong, with retro-active effect. And as long as there is no mixup in any of their databases making you a suspect for something you never did. I'm more in fear of incompetence at the government level than I am about malice.

Re:If you've done nothing wrong

[blindd0t]

If you've done nothing wrong ,you have nothing to fear. Just so long as they don't redifine what's wrong, with retro-active effect.

Though I expect that was posted with the sole intent of stirring up some muddy water, that sort of mind-set is clearly dangerous. The problem here is that we're continuously loosing more and more of our rights which protect us from our government. A false identification of an average citizen or legitimate businessman visiting from another country who happens to closely resemble a terrorist, but actually isn't the real-deal, could lead to false imprisonment for years if not a life-time, and without habeas corpus (because they may not necessarily acknowledge your claimed citizenship is valid), there is no stopping them. Honest citizens do have something to be horribly upset about: being treated like a potential terrorist and having every aspect of ourselves and our belongings intruded upon for a false sense of security.

I'm even going to throw in the good old car analogy too. I happen to still have my old Honda Civic from high school. When I got it (the price was right, so I took what I could get at the time), it had the crappy fart-pipe on it, and it had some shiny designer rims. I ripped the fart-pipe off, but I didn't see any point in removing the rims since even plain steel rims can be relatively costly. When I drive that car, the police see a young Spanish guy in a Honda Civic with after-market rims, and typically follow me for a while, sometimes even until I'm out of their jurisdiction (I cross counties on my way too and from work every day). When I drive my other car, which is a plain Ford Focus, police never pay any mind to me what-so-ever. They clearly profile, no matter how much they try to deny it. If they ran my plate, they'd see I'm 100% clean, so why continue to follow me until I hit the county line only when I'm driving *that* car? The car gets good gas mileage, so there is still good value to driving it rather than selling it, and it's nice to have it as a spare if my primary car has to hit the shop. Still, I sometimes wonder what these guys are thinking. Do they really think I'm some sort of threat? Do they feel I'm doing something retarded like running drugs? Who knows? What I know is that I really loathe being profiled like that every time I drive that car, as I'm a honest citizen who has done nothing wrong. So am I afraid? Not no, but hell no. Am I pissed off, oh hell yes. Don't doubt for a moment that the same thing won't happen when they're eventually watching every step you make, as opposed to periodically patrolling around in a car. You should be pissed off too.

Re:If you've done nothing wrong

[SL Baur]

as long as there is no mixup in any of their databases making you a suspect for something you never did. Since when do people ever make mistakes? Sheesh.

For the record, I do not live in Oakland, nor have I ever lived in Oakland, nor do I know exactly where Oakland is except that it's somewhere in the Bay Area that I haven't been since I was a child. And no matter how many times I tell the TSA guys that on my way into the United States, they continue to ask me every time.

But hey! Having people look through my underwear because they think I'm someone else makes me feel so safe!

Is it useful?

[Anonymous Coward]

There are numerous way around these methods of identification:

palm prints - can be removed in an acid bath and can be faked with latex or surgical silicone. Even systems that incorporate a variation on live finger detection can be fooled.

iris scans - Can be changed through the use of contact lenses.

Scars - a difficult one, but plastic surgury, make-up and latex can make them vanish or even create temporary ones.

Tattoos - Laser surgury can remove them, they can also be altered beyond recognition by professionals.

Possibly facial shape - can be altered through a variety of techniques

Sure, it would identify the average US citizen, but it would be useless against organised crime and terrorism.

small scale malice is the big issue

[ex-geek]

And as long as there is no mixup in any of their databases making you a suspect for something you never did. I'm more in fear of incompetence at the government level than I am about malice.

You were probably only considering conspiracy theory type malice. But what you really have to be afraid of, is your neighbour Frank, the cop, who is jealous of your wife and would like to have you out of the way.
Lots of governement employees will have access rights to such a huge database. Human nature tells us that some of them will abuse the system.

hex?

[Edam]

That's $27 in decimal.

Think some more

[Nursie]

It's not about being invisible, it's about human nature.

The database will be -

1. Imperfect
2. Abused by government employees
3. Illegally accessed and sold on for profit

1 means you'd get your name dragged through the muck anyway and have LESS chance of getting off, even if you didn't commit the crime.

2 that some people will get stalked by crazy ex spouses/lovers/stalkers/whatever. There will also be cases of it facilitating some petty authoritarian's revenge schemes

3 is a big hello to massive identity theft.