How California Police Are Tracking Your Biometric Data In the Field (muckrock.com)

v3rgEz writes: EFF and MuckRock teamed up in August to reveal how state and local law enforcement agencies are using mobile biometric technology in the field by filing public records requests around the country. With the help of members of the public who nominated jurisdictions for investigation, we have now obtained thousands of pages of documents from more than 30 agencies. Here's how police around California are using iris scanners, fingerprint readers, and facial recognition to monitor civilians.

Comments

lol

[Anonymous Coward]

welcome to Kalifornia

Re:Yoda Police come to you to shove it in your ASS

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow there are really "interesting" minds at work here. Im amazed at the time this looks like this all took Bizarre.

This is only going to become more common

[metrix007]

There are few ways to combat this, and it's a losing war to fight against a system that supports this.

The goal should be to fix the system so that this kind of nonsense is outlawed, and I believe we will meet that goal eventually. People are becoming outraged and are not OK with all this snooping...I expect this to change because when enough people are upset at behavior that is no longer hidden...it can't continue for much longer.

If it doesn't change, or in the meanwhile, what can we do? I've considered erasing fingerprints before, maybe by burning them off (I don't like having my fingerprints recorded every time I enter the US, or for any other matter). That's legal. It may raise questions, but nothing illegal about it. It's much harder (nigh impossible) to change an iris, but possibly wearing contacts could work.

Facial recognition is actually much easier. I forget the study/article, but basically by wearing some clear plastic parts on yoru face in the right way, it tends to obscure facial recognition techniques. Perhaps some special "fashionable" glasses/sunglasses or a baseball cap, something with plausible deniability that will obscure results legally. That, or grow the largest most unattractive beard you can. Not sure what ladies can do...maybe a special kind of makeup could be developed, which would be cool....

KGIII, ignore this post and go back to Digg. Please.

Re:This is only going to become more common

[truck_soccer]

I would say that you're wrong about the majority of people giving a shit about their privacy. If that were true, the smartphone boom would have been a bubble that burst. Instead we just see more and more privacy invasions wrapped up in a fancy new "smart" device, and millions and millions of people line up to get one. That isn't what I would call "outrage". Sure, the more savvy folks understand the underworkings of all this and are thus annoyed. People are too comfortable right now to really care about it. The powers that be have already won this war, and the minority (technically-abled folks) sound like crazy tin foil nutters when we talk to the typical citizen about all the ways uncle sam knows everything about you. TL;DR the average joe just doesnt give a fuck.

Re:This is only going to become more common

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. With Republican control of CA, it's just going to get worse here.

Re:This is only going to become more common

[metrix007]

I think that is due to ignorance, not apathy. Many were outraged over the Snowden revelations, and most people have literally no idea how much spying their smartphones can do. If they really understood, I don't think they would be OK with it, but maybe that is hopeful thinking on my part.

Re: This is only going to become more common

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly. They control this state with an iron fist.

Re:This is only going to become more common

[Anonymous Coward]

It's necessary ignorance. Most people are blissfully unaware of how their technology actually works and what medium it uses to connect with other services. TBH they shouldn't HAVE to know these details. At the simplest level your phone is reaching out to cellphone towers so we can spoof towers (Stingray) or we can just subpoena records from the tower owner. You're probably authenticating to a few WiFi hotspots (or you might be one) so we can grab the authentication requests or look for any SSID broadcasts you're making. You also might use NFC or RFID somewhere and there's nothing stopping me sniping those details off any device that's broadcasting it. I may not be able to authenticate to anything but I can still get some kind of fingerprint from your device. Anything emitted by any device you're carrying is fair game if it's in the public spectrum. I can record that. If it's somehow unique to your device then I know it's you.

Today was towers, tomorrow it's WiFi hotspots, then it'll be Bluetooth, then it'll be RFID and NFC, then it'll be electromagnetic signatures and screen emission spectra. If there's something measurable about your device it will be measured. Gather enough measurements and you can tell each device from another simply by being in the same room as it. If we know your device, we know you. Cellphones are way better than IP addresses because you don't share them - we know it's you and we're right 99.99% of the time.

But...surprise surprise...the photons bouncing off a police officer are somehow not public. You can't record those. Sorry bub.

Re:This is only going to become more common

[LessThanObvious]

I think the phone privacy issues are a matter of selective ignorance. People know vaguely what power and potential for abuse exists in smartphones, but it isn't enough to deter their use. They choose to ignore the issue because most people don't have a clear available alternative that still provides the utility. I know how phones can be abused, so Android gets a Google account under a fake name, I refuse to use apps that ask for excessive permissions, I will never install any social media app, basically I self impose a number of restrictions. I'm also fully aware that my phone leaks all kinds of data I wouldn't want to share. At some point it just becomes more important to have the utility of the smartphone and not to have to spend hours rooting and fully privacy protecting my phone in what still might not be an effective effort to have complete control of my information sharing. I just treat my phone as an untrusted device, I limit what information I access and in what interactions I engage. My girlfriend on the other hand would simply say WTF would she have a smartphone if she can't use Facebook? The things I do are only partially effective and they are still steps 95% of the population isn't going to be willing to bother with.

Re:This is only going to become more common

[metrix007]

You're conflating understanding the inner workings of a device, with being aware of what a device is doing. The latter is something everyone should be aware of, and ignorance is inexcusable..or soon will be.

People know what a car does and what it is capable of without having to understand how it works...

Re:This is only going to become more common

[Anonymous Coward]

You could always invent another religion obsessed with covering up, but make it applicable to both genders this time, and preferably only the face. Or you could just try bringing veils back into fashion without the mumbo-jumbo overtones.

Not likely to happen but arguably more probable than any rules outlawing this sort of privacy invasion.

Re: This is only going to become more common

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF are you two children talking about? Dear God, a simple wikipedia search disproves your juvenile rants.

The Governor of California is a Democrat. The California state legislature, BOTH houses, are overwhelmingly Democrat. In the last Presidential election, the state put its electoral votes to Democrat.

So, NO.. California is currently quite liberal/blue/Democrat. But hey, why look something up when you can spread misinformation on Slashdot!

Re:This is only going to become more common

[Anonymous Coward]

There are few ways to combat this, and it's a losing war to fight against a system that supports this.

The goal should be to fix the system so that this kind of nonsense is outlawed, and I believe we will meet that goal eventually. People are becoming outraged and are not OK with all this snooping...I expect this to change because when enough people are upset at behavior that is no longer hidden...it can't continue for much longer.

If it doesn't change, or in the meanwhile, what can we do? I've considered erasing fingerprints before, maybe by burning them off (I don't like having my fingerprints recorded every time I enter the US, or for any other matter). That's legal. It may raise questions, but nothing illegal about it. It's much harder (nigh impossible) to change an iris, but possibly wearing contacts could work.

Facial recognition is actually much easier. I forget the study/article, but basically by wearing some clear plastic parts on yoru face in the right way, it tends to obscure facial recognition techniques. Perhaps some special "fashionable" glasses/sunglasses or a baseball cap, something with plausible deniability that will obscure results legally. That, or grow the largest most unattractive beard you can. Not sure what ladies can do...maybe a special kind of makeup could be developed, which would be cool....

KGIII, ignore this post and go back to Digg. Please.

You are wrong on the facial recognition hacks you cited.

All the current facial recognition algorithm needs to see to make a positive identification is 5% of your face. It is impossible (short of wearing a Guy Fawkes mask) to thwart inconspicuously. Sorry.

You are right however that this is going to take a revolution to fix. I suggest someone somewhere setting up severe privacy violations of lawmakers, members of the senate and congress and all presidential hopefuls. If their private dirty laundry is spread all over the front pages of the news world wide, either they will do something to correct it or they will be on their way out.

Re:This is only going to become more common

[Anonymous Coward]

I would say that you're wrong about the majority of people giving a shit about their privacy. If that were true, the smartphone boom would have been a bubble that burst. Instead we just see more and more privacy invasions wrapped up in a fancy new "smart" device, and millions and millions of people line up to get one. That isn't what I would call "outrage". Sure, the more savvy folks understand the underworkings of all this and are thus annoyed. People are too comfortable right now to really care about it. The powers that be have already won this war, and the minority (technically-abled folks) sound like crazy tin foil nutters when we talk to the typical citizen about all the ways uncle sam knows everything about you. TL;DR the average joe just doesnt give a fuck.

Hack all the smart phones so that they give statistically normalized information to the carriers and the NSA. In simpler language, make a rom for the phones that just sends nonsensical bullshit to the entities that have privacy invading tendencies. This could be as simple as laying out a data structure to mimic whatever data types of typical data that is sent out to google and other nosy companies and subject it to a random number generator and for all the real data that goes over the device, connect to VPNs and encrypt a few times over so that the idiots trying to decrypt it only get gibberish.. not hard to do, but requires work so people that just bought the new iPhone S.. have no idea how to do it.

Re: This is only going to become more common

[Anonymous Coward]

California also has a government structure that allows a minority to gum up the world and prevent progress.

In other words, it doesn't matter if republicans hold a majority of elected office or even make up the majority of the people. There are enough of them to do what they do--stop anything that remotely looks like it will actually work in favor of the people.

Re:This is only going to become more common

[Lennie]

"People know what a car does and what it is capable of without having to understand how it works..."

Not for much longer though.

Really, I think most people were surprised a Tesla could drive on it's own and change lanes on it's own and Tesla will be able to do much more in the future.

The hardware is already included (although I suspect they want to add more hardware in the next models to make it more capable).

Re:This is only going to become more common

[Shortguy881]

I see this a lot on here: "We can overcome this through legislation and a focus on privacy..." Its just not True. This type of pervasive surveillance has little to do with what government we have, who is in power or where they money is at. It all comes down to progress. As we move forward and advance technology this becomes an inevitability. Even a societal move to neo-luddism won't help long term as with all luddite movements the people eventually die and their kids, born in the technology, are less scared of it. Yes, we can push back, regulate, ban certain technologies, but its all an uphill battle. The advances in technology far outpace our ability to protect privacy.

Civilians

[Anonymous Coward]

Monitor "civilians"? Law enforcement are civilians! Do they think they're part of the military?

Re:Civilians

[knightghost]

Wrong focus. Politicians wrote these laws, they are the only ones that can change them.

Re:Civilians

[Anonymous Coward]

I saw that too. What is the right word there? On the one hand, police are civilians and citizens just like us. On the other hand, many police are ex-military, they're being trained with military-style training, they're being given military-style equipment, they're relating to the citizenry as a military relates to an occupied nation, and police departments across the country have been linked, thanks to fusion centers and the like, into a national defense establishment. I'm feeling occupied.

Re:Civilians

[Anonymous Coward]

Monitor "civilians"? Law enforcement are civilians! Do they think they're part of the military?

In our city, yes. To them non-police are "civilians" but police are not. They even have their own military-style marching songs at the local police acadamy.

California cops are tracking *me*,here in Austria?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, who writes this crap ?
Who edits it ?!

SJPD seeking alternative funding sources?

[rsborg]

San Jose told EFF that it did not receive the federal grant and is seeking alternative funding sources.

This note piqued my interest - I wonder what other funding sources they could be speaking of?

Re:SJPD seeking alternative funding sources?

[Anonymous Coward]

More lenient asset forfeiture laws probably.

Re:SJPD seeking alternative funding sources?

[Anonymous Coward]

More lenient asset forfeiture laws probably.

I'm holding out hope for a bake sale!

Re:SJPD seeking alternative funding sources?

[Anonymous Coward]

... a bake sale!

I'm hoping that's how the police will dispose of their cannabis. Putting it in baked pastry is already legal in several other states. Plus the police will have a selling position the girl guides don't.

You Are Totally Out Of Touch With Reality

[Anonymous Coward]

You are totally out of touch with reality. The reality is that we are now well into, what I call, The Pussification of America. The general American public believes that they are under siege and that their government is their only protection. They believe that these systems are small and essential step needed by law enforcement to keep the citizens safe form the boogey man of the moment, terrorists, pedophiles, mass murdering gunmen...

These people feel that their protection is worth any budget and the sacrifice of any personal liberty. They believe that if you have done nothing wrong, that you have nothing to hide and that your resistance to this idea makes you suspect. These people, the majority of Americans, feel that all "security" measures are essential and even when presented with clear evidence to the contrary, like the ineffectiveness of the TSA, that it is better to have a program and be "trying" to be secure than not having the program.

This circumstance is worsening daily. It is manipulated by politicians for money(see your local government) and for votes(see Donald Trump et al). The land of the free and the home of the brave is well on its way to being the nation of pussies. That you don't see that, at this late stage, is disturbing.

Re:You Are Totally Out Of Touch With Reality

[Anonymous Coward]

Excuse me but Americans have always been rather sheltered, narcissistic, and sensitive to all kinds of things any mature adult should have no problem with.

Re:You Are Totally Out Of Touch With Reality

[Anonymous Coward]

No, its more like this...

Sure (some) people now are outraged, but that is not important and can be controlled.

What is important is that the next generation does not know a world where privacy exists. They will not miss what they never had. The Gvmt plays a multi-generational game and they will win.

Re:You Are Totally Out Of Touch With Reality

[Anonymous Coward]

You are totally out of touch with reality. The reality is that we are now well into, what I call, The Pussification of America. The general American public believes that they are under siege and that their government is their only protection. They believe that these systems are small and essential step needed by law enforcement to keep the citizens safe form the boogey man of the moment, terrorists, pedophiles, mass murdering gunmen...

These people feel that their protection is worth any budget and the sacrifice of any personal liberty. They believe that if you have done nothing wrong, that you have nothing to hide and that your resistance to this idea makes you suspect. These people, the majority of Americans, feel that all "security" measures are essential and even when presented with clear evidence to the contrary, like the ineffectiveness of the TSA, that it is better to have a program and be "trying" to be secure than not having the program.

This circumstance is worsening daily. It is manipulated by politicians for money(see your local government) and for votes(see Donald Trump et al). The land of the free and the home of the brave is well on its way to being the nation of pussies. That you don't see that, at this late stage, is disturbing.

Why don't you come over here to my face and say that? ... Didn't think so bitch!

I'm scared of the vendors' greed.

[Anonymous Coward]

TL;DR the average joe just doesnt give a fuck.

"If you do nothing wrong, then you have nothing to worry about." is what I hear constantly.

And the law and order crowd hold cops in high esteem - all cops are as honest, competent and forthright as they are on TV. And it's not just the cops. We have for profit companies making tech that can ruin people's lives. And it has been shown time and time again, corporate profits come first above the public's well being.

The tech uses needs to be transparent and audited. Meaning, the databases that it accesses and it's accuracy needs to be audited. The manufacturers say it's 100% accurate, but I need independent verification. And let's face it, their marketing people are going to make it seem more reliable and accurate than it is. Big money is at stake.

Pay your fair share! The gov't needs *more* money!

[Anonymous Coward]

Why does the government need more money and more power?

So it can be used AGAINST YOU!!!

So be sure to vote for politicians that want "someone else" to pay "their fair share".

Naaah, it couldn't be that those pols just want MORE POWER, could it?

It couldn't be they're FOOLING YOU, could it?

Of course not! You're too smart for that.

But damn, you HATE what the NSA is doing.

You HATE the militarization of police forces.

You HATE how the government seems to care more about the interests of large corporations.

Because NONE of that has anything to do with an overweening government that has more money and resources than it needs.

Unh huh. You're TOO SMART to think that!

Turnabout is Fair Play

[Tokolosh]

The latest trend is to whip out your phone and start recording whenever and wherever you see the authorities in action. This is a great development that must be encouraged and expanded.

Let the citizens install scanners that track the movements of police vehicles and other government employees, scan their faces and tags, collect their prints and skin flakes. Post the collected data to an easily searchable database. So when we see Mr. Plod emerge from a motel, tired and emotional, with a lady who is not his wife, he can explain why that dent in his cruiser was due to its sideswiping an old lady walking her dog, caught on a neighborhood surveillance cam.

The FBI is complaining, but I say that if they have nothing to hide, they should not object.

Re:Turnabout is Fair Play

[Anonymous Coward]

Let the citizens install scanners that track the movements of police vehicles and other government employees, scan their faces and tags, collect their prints and skin flakes. Post the collected data to an easily searchable database.

There was a website about 10 years ago that did this. You could post a picture of a cop, his badge number, etc. They collected public information on the officers and made it easily searchable. Including public court records where the officer was a witness and publicly available information about disciplinary actions, etc.

It was shutdown as many cops did not like it, it was also getting pictures and information on cops that were working undercover. If I remember correctly it was shut down because it endangered the police officers in their pursuit of justice.

Re:Turnabout is Fair Play

[Anonymous Coward]

And ... there's an app for that!!!

http://tech.co/new-app-aclu-help-people-record-police-2015-06

Re:Turnabout is Fair Play

[AHuxley]

Yes a lot of first amendment audit and public record request video sites and clips are been created.
Its amazing to see the demands to ID in a public place, to ID and have a reason to even be using a camera in public, to stop and hand over the data and equipment.
A few apps have been made to live stream or stream or save as a background app.
The way way around that is for an interview to establish ID and demand for the device to be unlocked and any connected site to be shared during the chat down.
Trying not to call it an arrest for photography and get past the lack of a stop and identify statute is always interesting.
Files can be kept, demanded as part of an on going investigation. Political views are often tested during the chat down, a raised voice used, 'request' for ID just to see the reaction and terms used, ability to know, quote any stop and identify statute, constitution, federal cases or the understanding of how to articulate and invoke rights.
Is the person press? Accredited media? A good chat down method is to demand police or city media ID that never existed or is not needed as photography in public is legal. The out of state journalist can be fooled into not recording and then waste hours trying to get paper work that never existed :)
Another more passive option is just to follow the photographer back to their vehicle and get details. Or details of all vehicles in the area hoping a database has a report of the same person or group doing first amendment audits is found.

Re:Turnabout is Fair Play

[Lennie]

Then it's time for a new one, run as a Tor hidden service in an other country or something along those lines.

Re:Turnabout is Fair Play

[Anonymous Coward]

Or at least, the police claimed it did.

Re:Yoda Police come to you to shove it in your ASS

[sumdumass]

I don't know about interesting, disturbed and completely funny maybe. Oh, maybe you find that interesting. Carry on then.

PS, I think the most disturbing part is that I knew the song music (hotel California) from reading his lyrics on the first line. It just popped into my head after a few words.

jew distraction bs -

[Anonymous Coward]

Idiot 'police' sat on their asses along with everyone else allowing this territory to be swarmed with mass parasite immigrants, and they continue to sit on their asses like everyone else while we're being sprayed with chemtrails. The let themselves be brainwashed tools of the jew, too duped to see they've been far more than 'chipped' themselves and will be disposed of by race soon enough with the mass of other idiots if you don't get off your asses. This 'so and so spying' bs is distraction from the jew tribe behind fraud 'government' 'nsa' 'fbi' fraud 'media', 'corporations' all of it.
The police have been implanted with 'morgellons' fiber optics by the chemtrails same as the rest while the jews bait them with toy drones and idiot 'bio metric' shit so police dupes they think they're 'inside' when they will be slaughtered down like the rest. The chiefs are in on it, also some bogus officers so they're infiltrated but most police aren't in it, and better wake the fk up, they'll be wiped out and replaced by bots and real drones, those not killed by virus will be controlled by the nano chip 'morgellons' and jew 'wireless' like everyone else. 90% of all comments on the web are jew trolls or computer generated. The computer generated post below 'scored up' by jew trolls along with the rest fake 'debate' to pretend the assault on us is not as far along as it is, 'only going to become more common, cover up the assaults already done and now coming at you as mass slaughter.
. copy this info, copy link pages to disk for backup, get the fck off the web it's a trap so you sit on your ass 'reading' while they spray to kill you, postal mail info to others, hand out notes to meet people, stop being a chicken shit afraid to meet real people and make tribe. Either get off your ass now or be killed. This note below has enough info and with exceptions/caveats ie; sites are all run by them so don't waste time, makes those you give it to responsible to pass it on. Use it --

We are being sprayed, archive.org/details/DontTalkAboutTheWeather_451 - see first 20 mins. The haze in the air is nano chips, other content- www.willthomasonline.net/Nano_Chemtrails.html - older page, semi dumb down, the spraying is mass and worldwide, the contents far more than described. The nano chips are for 'wireless' brain rape and control by 'smart grid' 'wireless' 'ipv6' 'internet of things'. You are already more than 'chipped'. The bogus 'towers' everywhere part of chemtrails weapons also causing droughts, storms and other assaults. They are Not 'cell' towers, all cell is satelite. They made bio weapons, newworldwar.org/chemical.htm - ignore notes at bottom, skip rest of site. Viruses to kill other races but not jews. They will use in chemtrails, those not killed will be slaves by 'wireless' control. Who is behind fraud 'government' fraud 'states' - thezog.info - note -most comments are jew trolls, mikrosht page covers up gates who's obvious jew, but see all pages incl. gun control, also top main page 'required reading' page, bottom half of list copy articles from vnn. don't waste time at vnn, also run by jews. http://corruptico.com/2014/09/30/jewish-bill-gates-crypto-jew-pseudo-christian/ - starts out religion bs but goes to genetic/racial. Other pages also 'satan lucifer' jew psy ops, ignore, 'jeesus' 'satan' bs made up by jews so idiots 'obey' 'turn the other cheek' instead of fight back as jews take it all. The jew's controls - religions and 'government'. It was Jews - 'who brought the slaves to america' by walter white, archive.org - ignore 'dbs' notes, another jew psy ops to distract from the fact they are a Race. Look at bogus 'founders' faces, 'washington' all of them jew cons in the tribe. Their bogus 'consitution' a proven fraud that applies to no one. Now they have trillions in weapons. 'government' is slavery and suicide. Most 'whites' in fraud 'government', liar 'media' liar 'scientists' 'dokters', 'lawyers' 'judges' are Not nordic whites they are 'white' skin ashkenazi JEW race. They started all the scum porno smut to brea

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

-note, jews trolling will probably dump bs under my post to distract, they move posts around, post bs responses, anything to distract. 90% of all posts on the web are jew trolls or computer generated. Don't be distracted, copy the info to re read, give links to others, hand out notes, make your own tribes -

police over reach

[Anonymous Coward]

Not one once of probable cause for any of it.
If you twits do not make the law bring back probable cause fully you deserve the police state you will and do have.
You literally have to hang any judge that says they do not need it with haste.

Re:California cops are tracking *me*,here in Austr

[TapeCutter]

You beat me to it. - Proving once and for all that Austrians are faster typists than Australians.

Legality?

[Anonymous Coward]

How can they take your fingerprints anywhere they want? That doesn't sound legal to me.

Says The "Brave" AC

[Anonymous Coward]

Fite me IRL, Bro.

Swear on your Mum, I'll rek you.

P.S. You're Mum says; "Hi". She's a phat fatty.