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FBI Launches $1 Billion Nationwide Face Recognition System
MrSeb writes "The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has begun rolling out its new $1 billion biometric Next Generation Identification (NGI) system. In essence, NGI is a nationwide database of mugshots, iris scans, DNA records, voice samples, and other biometrics that will help the FBI identify and catch criminals — but it is how this biometric data is captured, through a nationwide network of cameras and photo databases, that is raising the eyebrows of privacy advocates. Until now, the FBI relied on IAFIS, a national fingerprint database that has long been due an overhaul. Over the last few months, the FBI has been pilot testing a face recognition system, which will soon be scaled up (PDF) until it's nationwide. In theory, this should result in much faster positive identifications of criminals and fewer unsolved cases. The problem is, the FBI hasn't guaranteed that the NGI will only use photos of known criminals. There may come a time when the NGI is filled with as many photos as possible, from as many sources as possible, of as many people as possible — criminal or otherwise. Imagine if the NGI had full access to every driving license and passport photo in the country — and DNA records kept by doctors, and iris scans kept by businesses. The FBI's NGI, if the right checks and balances aren't in place, could very easily become a tool that decimates civilian privacy and freedom."
The person who posted this story is a thought criminal. Report to the Ministry of Love immediately.
One more reason to not post stuff on Facebook.
The problem is that cops get points for arresting someone (catch the criminal).
They don't necessarily get points deducted for catching the wrong person.
This database will help them rack up points by finding someone who vaguely matches. All they need to do then is get them to "confess" (aka "plea bargain").
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
How long until Facebook and other considerably large photography aggregators get tapped for their "resources"?
Who thinks this will stop at just helping "the FBI identify and catch criminals"?
This is a bigger threat to privacy than anything in history.
Selling T-Shirts saying, "I've got your false-positive right here..." with a picture of goat.se on the back...
I swear they give me mod points to shut me up.
...walking around outside with a brown paper bag over my head. NOW who's paranoid? FOOLS!!!
Also, shouldn't criminals who have served their entire sentence (including parole) be removed from this database?
Why would they want to do that? If they restored full citizenship to ex-cons and actually allowed them to lead productive lives as full-fledged members of society, drastically lowering the recidivism rate from desperate people that can't even get hired at McDonalds and see no choice but to go back to crime, then how are they going to keep all the prosecutors, judges, police, detention officers, wardens, etc. employed? I mean, for God's sake man, what about the stockholders for the private prison corporations? Who's thinking about them?
The soylentnews experiment has been a dismal failure.
Now I for one do not have a problem with them using public surveillance or Driver's License ID's. If you go out in Public, you consent to being watched by the same public and by extension, the Government.
A normal person who was watched by "the same public" as closely as these systems can would quickly feel like he was being stalked and harassed. Going out in public does not mean you give consent to be stalked and have the time and date of your location constantly recorded in a permanent database.
It is completely acceptable and good for them to use this legally obtained data in an automated recongnition system. Yes there needs to be checks and balances but the problem doesn lie in the source of the images.
It absolutely does lie in the source of the images you gloss over all the nuance by saying "legally obtained" - when in fact what matters most is WHY it was legally obtained. Being photographed for a driver's license is a far different thing than being photographed for a system that can be used to identify someone who isn't even in a car, much less driving.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
People don't sit around in the registry and pay a hefty fee to give an updated photo for the spy system, they do it to drive. Using those photos is an abuse of the public trust. I'll print out your post and mail it to you when you are death row because a guy without a license who looks you went into a maternity ward and raped all the babies to death.
There are a lot of concerns being voiced, but come on folks... When has the FBI ever been used to track those with opposing political points of view?
Well, you can choose to not join the shared ID database. Of course, you won't get any money from the federal government for law enforcement if you don't join. But, hey, it's your choice.
Kind of like how all the States suddenly decided to raise the drinking age to 21 because it was a good idea. It had nothing to do with Losing 10% of their Federal Highway Funding.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Room_641A
Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012