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FBI Wants Biometric Database Hidden From Privacy Act (onthewire.io)
Trailrunner7 quotes a report from onthewire.io: The FBI is working to keep information contained in a key biometric database private and unavailable, even to people whose information is contained in the records. The database is known as the Next Generation Identification System (NGIS), and it is an amalgamation of biometric records accumulated from people who have been through one of a number of biometric collection processes. That could include convicted criminals, anyone who has submitted records to employers, and many other people. The NGIS also has information from agencies outside of the FBI, including foreign law enforcement agencies and governments. Because of the nature of the records, the FBI is asking the federal government to exempt the database from the Privacy Act, making the records inaccessible through information requests. From the report: "The bureau says in a proposal to exempt the database from disclosure that the NGIS should be exempt from the Privacy Act for a number of reasons, including the possibility that providing access 'could compromise sensitive law enforcement information, disclose information which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of another's personal privacy; reveal a sensitive investigative technique; could provide information that would allow a subject to avoid detection or apprehension; or constitute a potential danger to the health or safety of law enforcement personnel, confidential sources, and witnesses.'" RT released a similar report on the matter.
before some hackers got a hold of my fingerprints and other stuff...
Gimme a change.org link or similar otherwise I'm not caring. Complaining about anything on a site like this without combining our voices into is a waste of time.
Almost good. If you have a background check, and the FBI classifies everything, then your background check will come back clean, when in the past, it would reveal the presence (and some content) of your FBI file. More criminals will be able to get sensitive jobs. How is this a bad thing?
Learn to love Alaska
It is precisely these sort of records that can do us the most mischief - those that government enforcers and some kinds of other interested parties would be most likely to use against us. We must demand to especially see these records and others like them and to be allowed to correct or at least file protest on any that we find inaccurate. In some cases we need to sue against misuse of information voluntarily given in one context in another context in ways never justified against our own interests.
Nice of the FBI to be concerned about our privacy. They're always so thoughtful.
If they get the exemption for that database, what will keep them from migrating all data to that database?
What is the fucking point of the act? I hate these agencies, this is getting spooky.
Citizens of foreign countries will not be happy to find that their information has been shared contrary to their country's laws. Heads can fall.
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
I think we need to start keeping a database on the people who work for the FBI, and not let them see it.
It seems J. Edgar Hoover is back. The agency is becoming rather power-hungry of late.
It's not their job to push for policy, only implement it. It's fine if they say, "we can do our job better if we have access to X", but to use scare tactics and political pressure to get X is over-stepping their bounds, bordering on McCarthyism.
Table-ized A.I.
Bolded part above is what troubling me
If the biometric is mine, and the records are related to me, I should have the right to check and the right to oversee where those records end up with and who is / are using / checking those records
But as we all already know, our government is marching towards BIG BROTHER TOTALITARIANISM - this is just another attempt by BIG BROTHER to deny us our rights over the records that are basically ours
Kinda sad ... I ran away from a totalitarian regime only to end up into another regime that is gradually turning into totalitarian
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
If the FBI wants something, it can't be good for the citizens.
Imagine a mix between Star Trek: the Next Generation and NCIS, where captain Picard send Gibbs team to collect samples and investigate deaths of alien monsters.
The information in this database needs to have extraction and viewing privilige by the person the data concerns.
Otherwise, there is no way to show that, for instance, the finger and iris scan data in the database actually matches the person it is supposed to correspond to.
Example: I pretend I am some other person; say I am actually an illegal migrant, and I have falsified papers attesting that I am a citizen, but the actual person who's credentials I am using/stealing is alive and well in some distant part of the US. This happens all the time. I do this so that I can be hired for a job that needs biometric data on file. So, I arrive at the site, I give finger prints, they scan my eyeballs, maybe take a cheek swab or blood sample, and booya, I have the job.
Later, I comit some felony, and flee the scene.
The guy who's data I stole with my falsified/stolen paperwork cannot contest that the biometric data on file is not his, because he cannot subpoena the data for verification. There are fingerprints on file, they match the ones at the scene-- obviously he is guilty! (And with how eagerly US prosecutors go after people like this, this is a very real threat.)
If the guy and demand reproduction of the biometric data in the file, he can have the data independently verified by a reputable firm by supplying his own, legitimate biometric data, and show that the data in the database is fraudulent, and cannot possibly be him.
If you want to entertain the Big Brother Totalitarian Despotic Rule chain of thought, there is nothing to stop the FBI from straight up fabricating biometric data for a person they want to use the system against, claim the made up data matches the made up crime they invented, and indict/prosecute an innocent person for purely political reasons.
The supposed issues of disclosing incorrect biometric data and thus disclosing sensitive information incorrectly only happen when the data in the database is *gasp* incorrect.
Rather, the FBI is expecting everyone else to just accept, without question, that the data in the database is legit, citing privacy issues.
Bullshit.
It's absurd that they should have a database on anybody. This enables illegal search and seizure and should not be tolerated. The government should not be maintaining records on its citizens like this. We're suppose to have a right to privacy and the government should not be infringing on that right. Passing a law that mandates people provide information on themselves in return for something should be illegal. So should any law which requires one to provide said information for any other reason.
It's a little known fact, but the FBI is considering changing its name to "Government Enforcement Streamlined To Aid Police Officers".
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Next Generation Identification System (NGIS), and it is an amalgamation of biometric records accumulated from people who have been through one of a number of biometric collection processes.
Like Google's Project Abacus on Android phones. (You laugh; just wait.)
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
"FBI Wants Biometric Database Hidden From Privacy Act"
And I want the various members of the FBI to read the US Constitution, and anyone who snorts or giggles during or immediately after doing so to be summarily banned from being a part of that organization.
Nothing like classified inaccessible ones to protect against false-positives, misidentification, or their much less accidental abusive relatives...
There seem to be three different elements to this story:
1) What is the data being held? Is is merely the biometric' - i.e. what they would get if they took bits of me from me / photographs of me, or is it an awful lot more?
2) Who is the data being held about? The fact that the FBI has data about X means that at some point they've got that biometric data about X from somewhere. How they got it may be significant, that they have it may indicate that there's a human source collecting the nail clippings...
3) Who has access to this when? The most basis element - the biometric - must be available in the case of a disputed identification issue. It's the stuff beyond that that's the problem.
Part of the issue here is that the FBI is part police force, part intelligence agency. Having the same database for those different functions will tend to end in tears. The UK separation of MI5 from the police makes for a clearer distinction. Similarly the UK Data Protection Act gives subject access to anyone to obtain and challenge the facts that the POLICE hold about you - though certain information 'held for the prevention of crime' can be redacted.
It seems likely that the FBI will use this to hide data that they shouldn't have. We need to see a grand jury empanelled to investigate data abuse at the FBI and elsewhere as a criminal case. This would be on the basis of the laws used to bring federal charges against people who escaped prosecution for racist murderers in the past: 'deprivation of civil rights'. Any bets on that happening?
Sounds like the database is bigger (or going to become so) than they want to admit. As with most things government we probably have a lot of "mission creep" here. A database that started out as one for hardened criminals has been expanded to minor crimes, then to anyone suspected of any crime and is now probably in the process of being expanded to "anyones records they can get their hands on". They're probably afraid of the backlash when when little 6 year old Susie's mother finds out that her daughters records are in the database right along with a rapists & murders because she had a "safety day" at her school and a helpful man from the police department marched all of the kids through a biometrics station "in case they were ever abducted" that recorded their height, weight, fingerprints, hair/eye color, etc and loaded it into the police/federal database "so it wouldn't get lost".
"disclose information which would constitute an unwarranted invasion of another's personal privacy"
It's only okay for the feds to unwarrantedly invade one's privacy.
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
I've worked at the FBI Data Center in WV, and worked requirements on NGI.
One point you rarely hear, is that the FBI has limited rights to much of the data in their system. It is (mostly) provided to the FBI by state, tribal, and territorial agencies, all of which have separate and specific caveats on the use of the biometric data. The only data the FBI **DOES** own, is that supplied by Federal and Defense agencies.
While I never worked a FOIA claim while at FBI, consider a case where the data on a given individual comes from multiple sources. Each one would have to sign off on the FOIA release, or provide a reason why it was withheld, prior to releasing a FOIA package back to the requestor.
For other data, this is what I recall is stored (in general) at NGI
1. Fingerprint records, either scanned from 10-print cards, or directly captured via a capture device.
2. "Hand Geometry": i.e. palm lines, finger lengths, any trauma such as scarring or amputation.
3. Scars, Marks, and Tattoos: markings plainly visible, primarily on the face, head, or neck, and on the hands and arms. Don't recall if leg data was included.
4. Facial geometry (i.e. face recognition) may or may not be there. It was mentioned when I was working on the requirements team in 2005, but I wasn't working that area. Suspect it's there now, but I have no gauge of certainty on it.
All of the above is linked to an individual. The individual is then linked to records in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) database, with history, priors (if any), known associates, etc,
When a query goes in to the system (I'm familiar with the old "IAFIS" system, that just did fingerprints. . .) it matched the submitted prints to those in the databases (there was an algorithm and check-sums involved, as I recall. . .). and then reported back with all the NCIC data on the suspect.
Mind you, ALL of this is 9+ years old, and from memory. . .
This "proposal" is open to public comment folks, so be sure to go add your voice to whether you think the FBI creating another secret database of your information, which you can't correct or update, is a good idea or not.
https://www.federalregister.go...
So they want to hide what they know.
SORRY! The FBI is not a secret-keeping org.
They are not part of the CIA,NSA or the 'Star Chamber'. They are law enforcement, not the Spanish Inquisition.
So ALL of their records should be open. No secrets! ( the movie 'Sneakers' is a good one...)
There is no reason ( except in the minds of the power-grabbing bureaucrats ) for them to keep secrets.
Maybe, witness protection... maybe.
Maybe the names of victims of kiddie porn.... maybe.
and Maybe... the secrets of the people who actually are congressional lobbyists? NO!
All of the above is linked to an individual.
monumental FAIL for FAILING to mention that this data is all assembled and correlated by corruptable humans, its reliability and credibility is zero
A better way to think of it is that NGIS is not a database: it is an internet of existing databases. You create a query with credentials, the query is structured according to modern-ish web standards, it's distributed to all the databases, and the results are amalgamated into a response. The data at no time leaves the original databases, it's just a new way to query them all at once.
The FBI hasn't have control of fall the data. No agency has control of all the data. They are all just doorways to a big pool of data, some of which they might control. And all of those agencies have completely different regulations.
When I became a resident alien in this country I had to take a mandated blood test. I suspect it was more about getting my DNA on record than it was about keeping out venereal diseases and TB (especially considering the US has a much worse record in that area than my country). Also they took fingerprints for my Green Card. Refuse either one and the implication was no admittance to the country.