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

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]

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

[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]

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.

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?

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

[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: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.

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.