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FBI Developing Software To Track, Sort People By Their Tattoos (gizmodo.com)

An anonymous reader writes: According to an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) investigation, the FBI is working to create software with government researchers that will allow law enforcement to sort and identify people based off their tattoos. The advanced tattoo recognition technology aims to determine "affiliation to gangs, sub-cultures, religious or ritualistic beliefs, or political ideology" and decipher tattoos that "contain intelligence, messages, meaning and motivation." Such research first originated at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2014, and used a database of prisoner's tattoos. The technology developed by NIST would "map connections between people with similarly themed tattoos or make inferences about people from their tattoos," the EFF reports. What some may view as even more unnerving is that the EFF investigation claims the researchers disregarded basic ethical government research standards, especially those relating specifically to prisoners. The obtained documents reveal NIST researchers sought permission from supervisors only after they had conducted their initial research. The EFF argues that a database that sorts citizens based on their tattoos may or may not reflect their religious or political beliefs, social affiliations, or interests.

125 comments

  1. late to the party by turkeydance · · Score: 3, Interesting

    identifying marks is old school

    1. Re:late to the party by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yep, tattoos, graffiti tags, etc
      All have been tracked for years

    2. Re:late to the party by Onuma · · Score: 1

      This is true, even at a technological level.

      My buddy had a company in the 2000s which specialized, in part, in this type of tracking. If you recall a story from 2008 when ~29000 or so sex offenders' accounts were banned from MySpace (my, how times have changed), resulting in a number of arrests, his technology helped.

      --
      What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
    3. Re:late to the party by Lew-the-nerd · · Score: 1

      They haven't been 'tracked', I don't think, as much as they have been recorded as text or even images attached to records in NCIS database. That's the National Crime Information Center not the TV show. (https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ncic) I would suppose, without reading all the associated articles on the NIST site, that the program is aimed both at recognizing types of tattoos from images and characterizing them in an associated record in a searchable database and a kind of image matching search that is done by Google and Tin-Eye.

  2. Excellent by DivineKnight · · Score: 2

    Finally a chance to put my fake tattoo system into production.

    1. Re:Excellent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You could also do make-up based tattoo hiding in the downtime.

  3. waste of tax dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    taxation without representation

    trump 2016

    1. Re: waste of tax dollars by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Obama Frieaudchickeshitoutfitsdag 2016! Tallyho!

  4. Can I get a free fence? by zenlessyank · · Score: 0

    So I can just imprison myself? You can hang all your pretty labels on it. I'm all bent over waiting for you. Please hurry.

  5. Facial tattoes by Imp00 · · Score: 0

    Should probably be among the highest ranking factors from the set of heuristics they use to identify questionable people.

    1. Re: Facial tattoes by Threni · · Score: 2

      The little darlings certainly look different and special to me. "It's a tribal thing...I have tribal stuff on my face". Yes you do, don't you. I look forward to seeing you hang around train stations in about 15 years begging for spare change when you finally give up at attempting to find a job"

    2. Re: Facial tattoes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The little darlings certainly look different and special to me. "It's a tribal thing...I have tribal stuff on my face". Yes you do, don't you. I look forward to seeing you hang around train stations in about 15 years begging for spare change when you finally give up at attempting to find a job"

      Thank you. It has to be boldly said [don't let the fact that I'm an AC dishearten you]. Tatoos are a plague. Thanks FBI. Lock them up and throw away the key.

  6. Fuck FBI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The advanced tattoo recognition technology aims to determine "affiliation to gangs, sub-cultures, religious or ritualistic beliefs, or political ideology"

    Yeah, cuz that's any of their business.

    1. Re:Fuck FBI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ya it is

    2. Re:Fuck FBI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Um, no. What I put on my body is not.

    3. Re:Fuck FBI by Hylandr · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Tattoo's are the new finger prints. Thank you for making Law Enforcement's job easier by self-identifying.

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
    4. Re:Fuck FBI by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Tattoos are less unique than fingerprints, and much easier to change. Lots prior people have similar generic Celtic designs, for example.

      I'm more worried about facial recognition.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    5. Re:Fuck FBI by dbIII · · Score: 1

      I'm more worried about facial recognition.

      A tattoo could confuse it :)

    6. Re:Fuck FBI by BradleyUffner · · Score: 3, Insightful

      By PAYING someone to put a tattoo on a part of your body that is fully visible while walking around it public, you MADE it everyone's business.

    7. Re:Fuck FBI by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Lots prior people

      Presumably you mean "lots of". No idea about "prior". It's a senior monk - like an abbot - but that doesn't fit the sentence.

      Perhaps you could ask someone to translate it into English?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    8. Re:Fuck FBI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Victim blaming. Disgusting.

  7. Treat tattoos like bulls-eyes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Watch crime drop.

  8. Re: As my father who was a cop for twenty-five yea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    When did he retire? In my neck of the woods, everyone seems to have a tattoo or two

  9. That won't be useful much longer by damn_registrars · · Score: 1

    Tattoos have become so common and trendy amongst generation X (and later) that it is almost less common to see someone with no tattoos at all. You can try to identify someone by the collection of tattoos they have (since the Pokemon mentality of "gotta catch 'em all" seems to apply to tattoos) but that gets iffy as you don't know where some are and some may be covered for any of a number of reasons. Even sorting isn't that useful; sure there are gang and prison tattoos but there is no shortage of people with tattoos of their favorite broken-up band and people with barbed wire tattoos that can be mistaken for other things.

    Really, pretty useless effort. Might as well go for high-speed retinal scanning.

    --
    Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
    1. Re:That won't be useful much longer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You can cross correlate with other information, even with extremely common tattoos, does the person have brown hair, blue eyes, X skin color, Y height, you whittle away to get the person you want. You could also do it probability based on location, it is unlikely that person X would be at location Y, therefore it was probably person Z.

    2. Re:That won't be useful much longer by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      Tat location is analyzed, too.

      Read a sci-fi book once where a (shadow) government (the bad guys) has a massive system that watched all public cameras and used facial recognition and other techniques, and license plates and car styles, on roads, to essentially create a 100% live, up to date database on where everyone was. They even used stuff that would be trivial nowadays, like WiFi and Bluetooth signals-qua-radar to track positions loosely inside buildings, with some AI guesswork on which floors and rooms people were in.

      Got a name? Plug it in, there is the estimated position (or actual, if in camera rance) complete with live feed. Follow their car down the road. Watch them park and go into the building. See a 3D animation of their body as it walks inside on its estimated route to its desk.

      Oh! He' s on the pooper now!
      Sick. If this is to happen, it needs to be public so we can watch government right back.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
  10. They missed this in the summary by invictusvoyd · · Score: 1

    With technology provided by Yahoo

  11. Neck tattoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Any girl with tattoos on her neck is a slut. Trust me. If you see a girl with a neck tattoo, you can get in her pants no problem.

    1. Re:Neck tattoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Unless she's owned by a MSL gang.

      Then you'd be dead if you got into her pants.

    2. Re:Neck tattoo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Unless she's owned by a MSL gang.

      Then you'd be dead if you got into her pants.

      Some Microsoft gang I guess?

  12. I'm gonna get inked by TigerPlish · · Score: 1

    "NOT SURE" (without the quotes) around my wrist. Yup.

    (no. not really. If / when I do get inked, it'll be the Warner Bros. and their sister Dot. And it won't be where an FBI camera can see it.)

    --
    The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
    1. Re:I'm gonna get inked by TigerPlish · · Score: 1

      "NOT SURE" in barcode around my wrist.

      The preview button, it did not save me!

      --
      The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
    2. Re:I'm gonna get inked by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      it'll be the Warner Bros. and their sister Dot

      That's totally insaney.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    3. Re:I'm gonna get inked by TigerPlish · · Score: 1

      Should I also have the show's namey inked in?

      --
      The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
    4. Re:I'm gonna get inked by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Should I also have the show's namey inked in?

      No. Anybody who doesn't know the name of the show isn't worth knowing.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re:I'm gonna get inked by TigerPlish · · Score: 1

      No. Anybody who doesn't know the name of the show isn't worth knowing.

      Truer words have seldom been spoken.

      Flamiel!

      --
      The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
    6. Re:I'm gonna get inked by swb · · Score: 1

      Be brave. Get "DO NOT RESUSCITATE" tattooed on your chest.

       

    7. Re:I'm gonna get inked by TigerPlish · · Score: 1

      Heh, you have no idea how close to the mark you are. I had a CABG done TWICE in one night. Left quite a mark.

      I intend to get a zipper inked around the scar, and the zipper pull could read "DNR" or "Do Not Resuscitate"

      Probably a very 1930's cartoony zipper with a teardrop-shaped pull with DNR would work.

      But that won't mean squat until I put it on paper. Which I will. Someday.

      --
      The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
    8. Re:I'm gonna get inked by fredgiblet · · Score: 1

      The only tattoo I'd consider.

    9. Re:I'm gonna get inked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... and their sister Dot ...

      I had to look this up. I only watched one episode of 'Amaniacs' (about a first date; funny) but they've never been repeated on television. Now I think about it, I might watch them online. Hmm, I thought 'Pinky and the Brain' was British. No; that's another animated cartoon I missed and now want to watch.

    10. Re:I'm gonna get inked by justthinkit · · Score: 1

      What about the Recycle symbol?

      --
      I come here for the love
    11. Re:I'm gonna get inked by edittard · · Score: 4, Funny

      No user serviceable parts inside.

      --
      At the bottom of the /. main page it says 'Yesterday's News'. Well they got that right.
    12. Re:I'm gonna get inked by TigerPlish · · Score: 3, Interesting

      What about the Recycle symbol?

      My license already says to use my body for science, but hey, that is a cool idea!

      --
      The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
    13. Re:I'm gonna get inked by TigerPlish · · Score: 1

      No user serviceable parts inside.

      Thanks for the laugh, that's great! So many possibilities for gallows humor with this scar.

      --
      The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
    14. Re:I'm gonna get inked by fredgiblet · · Score: 1

      I'm already registered as a donor, but in the unlikely event that I get the tattoo I might just do that.

    15. Re: I'm gonna get inked by jsh1972 · · Score: 1

      Yeah that's on my list for my very next one

  13. are fbi badges coprighted? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would draw l.e.o. and admin id tags or court seals allover my torso like scales of a reptile. Oh wait...

    1. Re:are fbi badges coprighted? by DivineKnight · · Score: 5, Funny

      I'd go with a QR code that's a SQL string ala Lit'l Bobby Tables.

    2. Re:are fbi badges coprighted? by Hylandr · · Score: 1

      +! Funny

      --
      ~ People that think they are better than anyone else for any reason are the cause of all the strife in the world.
    3. Re:are fbi badges coprighted? by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Or that magic dot pattern that (supposedly) prevents photocopying banknotes.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re: are fbi badges coprighted? by jsh1972 · · Score: 1

      Windows '98 PC, not online, hooked up to flatbed scanner and old inkjet fixes that shit... or so I've heard ;-)

  14. Re:As my father who was a cop for twenty-five year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Cognitive bias, he only remembers ones that enforce his belief, and also many people have hidden tattoos.

    There is also potential that he never stopped a person without a tattoo that wasn't a criminal.

    Your dad only stopped criminals, good luck.

  15. Re: As my father who was a cop for twenty-five ye by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Especially on your neck, you added a new one next to "mother", Nimhrod?

  16. Re:As my father who was a cop for twenty-five year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Did he say the same thing about blacks?

    Because it's just as stupid.

  17. And now for my next trick by laurencetux · · Score: 4, Interesting

    tats with UV ink (bonus if it requires certain bands within the UV range)

    1. Re:And now for my next trick by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      I have tats that no EM frequencies can see, UV or otherwise.

      They're all over my body.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    2. Re:And now for my next trick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A tat only a coroner will enjoy delivers the joy to the bearer too late.

    3. Re:And now for my next trick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've been doing that for years. I have multiple "clever" tattoos done in different inks that can only be seen under specific wavelengths.

  18. copright infringements by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Converting free speech of a innocent criminal dispute into a commercial accessory! Hand-in your 14th amendment Card, Mr. A.C.!

  19. DB of Fake Chinese Tatoos by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    would probably be hilarious

  20. I'm not gonna lie by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I sort people by their tattoos all the time. If you have a cute tramp stamp on your hip, like a butterfly or a unicorn, you go to the head of the line. If you've got "Born To Raise Hell" blazoned across your back, you go to the end of the line.

    If you have a tattoo of the face of any human, living or dead, anywhere on your body, please step out of line and walk into the sea, because no matter what you think, it doesn't look like them one bit. Instead, it looks like Cliff Howard (unless it's supposed to be a tattoo of Cliff Howard, in which case it looks like a smeared Bazooka Joe).

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:I'm not gonna lie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I sort people by their tattoos all the time. If you have a cute tramp stamp

      Like this here ?

    2. Re:I'm not gonna lie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      To me, tattoos anywhere on the body are tacky, like bumper stickers.

    3. Re:I'm not gonna lie by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "Cute tramp stamp" is an oxymoron.

    4. Re:I'm not gonna lie by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Funny

      "Cute tramp stamp" is an oxymoron.

      It's OK, I've had all my shots.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
  21. nope by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Avoid girls with animal footprint tattoos. Trust me; she will divorce you, take all your pets, and deman allimony for passed emotional harm.

  22. Gonna have a lot of this one... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I'm going to take a guess and say there will be a lot of hits for this...
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex

    https://www.google.com.mx/search?q=love+mom+tattoo

    1. Re:Gonna have a lot of this one... by BlueStrat · · Score: 1

      I'm going to take a guess and say there will be a lot of hits for this...
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      https://www.google.com.mx/sear...

      Oedipus, Schmedipus!

      I still love ya, Mom!

      -From the late Robin Williams' stand-up routine.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
  23. Promiscuity scale by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    EFF failed to mention the tattoo promiscuity scale - based on tattoo analysis, FBI can tell how likely a woman is to have a one night stand. Apparently agents have been using this in the field for a few years now. Unfortunately, they're still working on the STD probability prediction model.

  24. Individualism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'm confused. How can this possibly work when every tattoo is an artistic expression of the bearer's unique, individual personality and life story?

    1. Re:Individualism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It doesn't but since the information isn't open to the public FBI doesn't need to worry about false positives and can just treat everyone as if it works.

  25. Someone should track and sort the FBI by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    These lunatics have entirely lost the plot

  26. Not really all that mundane by fyngyrz · · Score: 1

    Identifying marks and law enforcement formally sorting you by your political and religious ideologies for making decisions about your guilt, innocence, suspect nature, surveillance, search, and seizure, however, isn't really old school at all. Not so publicly, anyway.

    I find the whole thing very interesting. Apparently, the legal system can get away with considerably more than I thought it could.

    Live and learn, I suppose.

    So, how about those Kardashians?

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    1. Re:Not really all that mundane by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Law enforcement has been interested in political and religious ideologies (or lack of them in the case of religious) for as long as I've been paying attention. Depending on the country, if you lean left/right and whether you follow the established religion, along with how much money/power you have has always figured in to how much attention law enforcement gives you. At least most countries have been more up front about it then America where the propaganda has taught people that they're the free-est people in the world.
      Anyways, back to the Kardashians.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    2. Re:Not really all that mundane by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This is why I'm an atheist. They can't identify me.

      Thank you, drive through.

    3. Re:Not really all that mundane by Hognoxious · · Score: 0

      Law enforcement don't make decisions about guilt or innocence. Did you sleep through Civics 101?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re: Not really all that mundane by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Sure they do. They just don't say it in so many words. Getting it to stick is another matter.

    5. Re: Not really all that mundane by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In other words, you have no proof of your assertion.

    6. Re:Not really all that mundane by fyngyrz · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Law enforcement don't make decisions about guilt or innocence.

      Ideally, no. In point of fact, sad to say, they do it all the time. And most of the time, the courts go along without significant demur.

      Did you sleep through Civics 101?

      No. I have a deep legal background as well. But knowing all three of how it's supposed to work, how they say it works, and how it actually works tends to color what I say. Here, we're talking about how it's supposed to work, and how they say it works, both of which fail to correlate well with how it actually works.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    7. Re: Not really all that mundane by fyngyrz · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Who needs proof when the process is:

      o Throw as many charges as possible at the victim
      o If actually guilty, main charge sticks, plea bargain others off
      o If not guilty, main charge dropped if you plea bargain to lesser thing
      o or, go to court, be tried by (annoyed) judge, guilty of lesser thing and max penalty unless apply $$$
      o or, go to court, be tried by (REALLY annoyed) judge + and jury, take chance with Gaussian landings on your Kardashian-fed empaneled, ignorant of their rights and powers

      Speaking as someone who's been through the process several times from several different angles, and spent well over six figures on lawyers, I can say with authority that this is how it actually works.

      The justice system is at best a parody of itself. It is almost entirely constitutionally bereft, hugely prone to sway by money, back-loaded by the plea bargain mechanisms, cops toeing the "blue line", prosecutors whose only goal is "winning", regardless of how well a case was brought, race, income, religion, dress and schooling considerations, astonishingly powerful old-boy networks, almost entirely ineffective public defenders, all driven by a huge corpus of absurd laws with even more absurd punishments.

      If you believe even for a moment that any of this is inaccurate, you will be hugely disadvantaged when you find yourself caught in the gears of the legal system.

      --
      I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
    8. Re: Not really all that mundane by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're right. Anecdotes from a self-confessed jailbird. Who needs proof when you have that? Prosecution rests!

  27. Myspace? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    when ~29000 or so sex offenders' accounts were banned from MySpace (my, how times have changed)

    MySpace is irrelevant. Sex offenders are banned from Facebook, which is pretty much the whole social enchilada these days. No Facebook means no family social networking, no friend networking, no job networking, no local swap boards, no nothing, really.

    Try to keep up with the retribution train, will you?

    1. Re:Myspace? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the fuck does facebook have to do it?

        Onuma's buddy helped with the MySpace takedown in 2008 - if Onuma's buddy had anything to do with more recent Facebook bans, don't you think Onuma would have fucking mentioned that?

    2. Re: Myspace? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Will Facebook stop tracking you? Is that all it takes?

    3. Re:Myspace? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know. I don't have a facebook account, by choice, and i see my family and friends IRL. I have a phone, if they need to reach me. I have a job too. We do use 2 different systems to communicate there, but i think the skype is being left out, since nobody has left a message there in 3 months. My customer has a third way of communication. No facebook, i lose nothing, except some idiotic "win-an-ipad"-competitions, that companies only put on facebook.

    4. Re: Myspace? Really? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oh hi grandpa! Actually, Facebook isn't the entire Internet or even the only social network - we just set that as your homepage!

    5. Re:Myspace? Really? by Onuma · · Score: 1

      Indeed.

      Even after this story aired, his company tried to offer their services to Facebook and were met with a resounding "No." At the time, they had barely opened their doors to non-students (or were, perhaps, just about to effect that change) and had no real concern regarding sex offenders or criminals.

      An ounce of prevention, they say...

      --
      What else can happen when an unstoppable force collides with an immovable object?
  28. Think of the children by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.nist.gov/itl/iad/ig...

    Jim Cole, Homeland Security Investigations, DHS & Laura Carroll, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,"The Use of Tattoo Detection and Recognition to Rescue Child Victims"

    Hooray for the EFF.

  29. Re:As my father who was a cop for twenty-five year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Your dad is an idiot for not recognizing his cognitive bias, and so are you for not recognizing the flaw in his logic yourself.

  30. Re: As my father who was a cop for twenty-five yea by Bing+Tsher+E · · Score: 3, Insightful

    People don't choose to be black.

    People choose to have tattoos,

  31. Re:As my father who was a cop for twenty-five year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    This. I work IT for a city, and someone thought it was a bug in our system that all of our inmates had tattoos. We did a spot check of about 5% of the inmates, and found that they all had tattoos.

  32. They didn't already? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Why weren't they already doing this?

    I'm pretty sure I saw a tattoo database on some crime show years ago - so why the fuck has it taken them this long to adopt it?

    Next you'll be telling me they are creating a database for fingerprints and photos!

  33. Duh. Animal tattoos mean... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    knotty sluts.

    Did you barge in on her banging your bull mastiff instead of your hung like a bull mastiff buddy? :)

  34. This is not new by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The public safety system I worked on over a decade ago performed this same set of functions. Now, if it could identify the marks optically, that would be interesting.

  35. George Carlin said it long ago... by snizzitch · · Score: 1

    "One reason not to get a tattoo is that a tattoo is positive identification. No one should ever do anything to help the police, especially when you may be the object of their interest." - George Carlin

    1. Re:George Carlin said it long ago... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "One reason not to get a tattoo is that a tattoo is positive identification. No one should ever do anything to help the police, especially when you may be the object of their interest." - George Carlin

      you should rip the skin from your face, it can be used to identify you

      remove the skin from your fingers too so you are not helping the cops

      saw off your legs because gait software can identify you that way

  36. Um, they basically did this on the Shield. by fiver-hoo · · Score: 1

    They did this on the TV show The Shield well over a decade ago. Wait until the people who came up with this find out about The Wire.

  37. I wonder what they'd make of Tom Dodge. by TigerPlish · · Score: 1

    "Welcome Aboard"

    He did it to get over the "Murmansk Brushing Incident"

    If the FBI can see *that* particular tat... we're in deeper shit than we thought.

    --
    The "Civilized World" jumped the shark ca. 1973.
  38. This story is flak by axewolf · · Score: 1

    Distracting from the real story: facial recognition

  39. Better not... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The real reason (as indicated by their recent change in mission statement...) is so they can criminally charge copyright violations using the same system they use to look for mundane criminals. Because everybody knows copyright infringement pays better than locking up murderers and child rapists, but the former pays the bills while the latter builds the scope.

    You think I'm kidding.

  40. Ethical standards? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Ethical standards? You've got to be kidding me. They consulted an existing database. Sounds like these "ethical standards" have gone too far.

  41. Ya well ... by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 1

    ... I have a tattoo covering my entire body - of me, only taller. (Thanks Steven Wright)

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  42. Won't work on my tats, that's for sure! by techno-vampire · · Score: 1

    I have three tattoos, but there's no way they're going to get pictures of them for their database without a warrant, two days of prep and the assistance of a proctologist. All three of them are 50cm "up."

    --
    Good, inexpensive web hosting
  43. American fascism by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This sort of tracking and surveillance is the hallmark of a fascist state. Even if the FBI is allowed to develop this kind of system, it surely wouldn't be legal, even in a country with as poor a record as the United States, on upholding democratic principles.

  44. Number One by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Darn it! I knew that taking that tattoo of a number one was a mistake.

  45. Re:As my father who was a cop for twenty-five year by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    once said, he had never stopped anyone with a tattoo that wasn't a criminal. Tracking those people is a good thing.

    I have met cops like your father, they are always the type that like to beat up black people and shoot them without provocation. #BlackLivesMatter!

  46. Now we need by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... messages, meaning and motivation ...

    That may work for criminals where gang affiliation and status is a priority, but how will they know which of the cultural/criminal/political/religious/ritualistic intents, Joe Average expressed via his tattoo?

  47. dig a big by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    fucking tomb.

  48. top kek by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they will end up with a nice database of hipsters and faggots

  49. He's in a Gang Called "Mother" by BrendaEM · · Score: 1

    It's a big gang.

    BTW, they want to see your junk, too.

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    https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
  50. With taxpayer money. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Meanwhile, have you seen the US National debt lately?

    The NWO is a dead fantasy.

  51. Re: As my father who was a cop for twenty-five yea by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Gorilla lives matter too

  52. I'll save them some time: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Excluding the obvious (tattoo parlors), they could check vape stores, biker bars, and middle school parking lots.

  53. govgang by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They used to (and still do) track people by their ear shape. This is why they flushed the hippies.

  54. reminds me of one of my roadside stops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Pedestrian: but my identity cant be stolen if i dont have one!

  55. Even Simpler Solution by BigU+03C0mpin · · Score: 1

    Walk around like the guys in Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. Trench coat, wide brimmed hat and a bandana. If enough people do it you're back to being relatively more anonymous.

    Better yet, someone make the police shrouds from A Scanner Darkly.

    Of course these ideas will only work until law "enforcement" come up with biomechanical movement analysis to figure out who you are based on how you move.

    1. Re: Even Simpler Solution by jsh1972 · · Score: 1

      Put pebble in shoe

  56. Passing intelligence via tattoos ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's completely retarded , the fact that govt would mention that just reveals that the entire thing has NOTHING to do with catching real bad guys , and everything with exercising undue power over any individual that might be "a problem" for someone in power , or just to make an example out of one person to strike fear into many others ... like terrorists do. Hmm.

    Didn't someone warn us about this inevitable future ?

  57. Political ideology? by JesseEnjaian · · Score: 1

    Isn't political ideology a protected class from discrimination? They wouldn't be allowed to formulate suspicion based upon religious practices would they? Idk... this scares me for some reason.

  58. Re:late to the party trivia by johnniedoo · · Score: 1

    I know that State and Feds have catalogued tattoos for decades, they have been used inside the Fed Corrections dept, states too, for tracking gang affiliations. I know for sure that computers have been used with , primitive as it may be, to identify and associate any/all people with certain tattoos with the most aggressive in jail gangs. Those gangs are not contained by the walls and have long been very well established in the communities all over the country. Sharing data has never been a strong point of any Fed or State dept or agency. I only know of the policies on cataloguing tattoos by all police depts and by all correctional institutions upon arrest or admissions. It is another basic part of 'entering the system" and has been for longer than the 8 decades i have been alive. Computers and software make all kinds of applications of all this data simply a matter of what, when , and how. I am guessing, but tattoos may have been recorded or compiled as long or longer than fingerprints. just 2 John

  59. You wanted to be an individual by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And now you are. In the eyes of The Man!

  60. Re: As my father who was a cop for twenty-five yea by coinreturn · · Score: 1

    People don't choose to be black.

    I did, but it didn't work.