Slashdot Mirror
FBI Can Access Hundreds of Millions of Face Recognition Photos (eff.org)
An anonymous reader writes from a report via EFF: The federal Government Accountability Office published a report on the FBI's face recognition capabilities that says the FBI has access to hundreds of millions of photos. According to the GAO report, the FBI's Facial Analysis, Comparison, and Evaluation (FACE) Services unit not only has access to the FBI's Next Generation Identification (NGI) face recognition database of nearly 30 million civil and criminal mug shot photos, but it also has access to the State Department's Visa and Passport databases, the Defense Department's biometric database, and the drivers license databases of at least 16 states. This totals 411.9 million images, most of which are Americans and foreigners who have committed no crimes. In May, it was reported that the FBI is keeping information contained in the NGI database private and unavailable. It argues in a proposal that the database should be exempt from the Privacy Act.
"It argues in a proposal that the database should be exempt from the Privacy Act."
Which is a blatant admission that they are currently violating it.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Your DNA will be used to convict you regardless of any objection you might have if you ever are accused of a crime.
Or it will exonerate you if you are innocent. Not that I'm for all this overreach but just stating the obvious.
People can always offer a DNA sample voluntarily if they feel it will exonerate them.
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
This is the modern way of doing war and I prefer it to the horrible two world wars of the 20th century.
Sure you do. That's what they hope. It's not like it hasn't been foretold as leading to dystopian futures in science fiction novels dating back 50 years or more.
your 2500+ dollar fee in order to voluntarily renounce your US citizenship so they can't come after you legally as a US citizen for any acts you commit that may be legal where you're living but the US doesn't like. Why so much? Because assholes who renounce it to dodge taxes shouldn't be allowed to without paying a penalty. (LOL! Go look at post-citizenship US tax requirements. You're supposed to keep filing for *10* years after you leave the US. The only thing those filing/renunciation fees affect is the little guy trying to get out because the US has stopped being somewhere 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' is possible while also enjoying your constitutional freedoms to any believable levels.
I read this three times and have no idea what you are trying to say. I like puppies.
I don't think anyone who's dodging taxes will worry about small change like $2500.
However, US citizens who simply live abroad and are cut off from simple financial services (say, a stock market account, loans, savings accounts, certain life insurance policies) in the country they live in due to to FATCA shenanigans - they often don't have $2500 to spend on paperwork. And often they wouldn't even have to pay US taxes due to taxation treaties (you still have to file them, though, and claim the exemptions states in the corresponding treaty).