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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
If you join the military, you have to give your DNA (you have no choice).
This DNA is available to the FBI, all 50-states, and the EU, UK and AUS by means of information sharing agreements. Your DNA will be used to convict you regardless of any objection you might have if you ever are accused of a crime.
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.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
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?
If they, or a sister agency that they could rely on, didn't have that capability, people would question their competence and use of taxpayer money.
What happens when someone who's not on a watch list commits a heinous crime on US soil, and law enforcement can't identify the person, unmasked, in good quality surveillance footage?
Citizens would say WTF. We can't even start our investigation.
"We have an ID on the suspect sir. It's Guy Fawkes. Again."
Have gnu, will travel.
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.
Government can more efficiently search government records (legally obtained in this case). You submit passport photos and police is legally within their rights to take mug shots when they arrest someone. I am confused about why this is an issue. Even if they use it to search for a face captured on some camera during a purported crime, isn't this why these records are kept in the 1st place? Or is it ok if a victim looks through 20 folders of mugshots, but not ok if a computer looks through the same records based on an image from a store cam after a store got robbed? Where is the problem?
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
Am I the only one who isn't surprised in the slightest by this?
Of course the FBI/CIA/NSA or whoever will use every possible tool at their disposal. The question of legality doesn't enter into the equation for these people, it's not even a concern unless they think they might be caught. Otherwise it's "damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead."
Seriously, if any of you still harbor the childishly naive belief that the nation's law enforcement agencies are constrained by the law in any way, shape, or form, please contact me as I have a lovely bridge in Brooklyn that I'll sell dirt cheap.
Face facts:
- Your privacy is gone.
- Your personal information is for sale to the highest bidder.
- Your rights only matter if they don't get in the way of "fighting terrorism" or "upholding the law" or "protecting the children" or whatever the slogan of the week is.
- If you have money or connections you can get away with damn near anything, otherwise expect to be fucked, and fucked hard. (Those prisons aren't going to fill themselves!)
Oh sure, you may win some small battles, but that's penny ante stuff. If you get in the way of anyone or anything with moneyed interests, consider yourself squashed, because you will be.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
The Amish seem to do just fine, and I doubt they are on anyone's watch list.
Sure, if you like living in the 17th century.
And I wouldn't count on them not being on some sort of watch list- the Amish are "different", somewhat self-sufficient, insular, and oppose the government on basic principles. Those two of those things make you a "threat" in a lot of agencies eyes.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Just microchip us all at birth and be done with it.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Funny but in all seriousness paraphernalia to prevent facial recognition systems from working are going to pick up.
We can no longer trust our governments not to abuse data they collect and they already collect the data before it was even approved!
Some say it's already too late because of driver's licenses and passports but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Facial recognition is coming to a CCTV near you! if it's not already there. Minority report style tracking is not that far fetched in our lifetime.
It's the usual argument right, what do you have to hide? -so why can we not read all the FBI's internal memos? what do they have to hide?
I have nothing to hide but letting someone arbitrarily read my mail is not something I agree to. I don't give a shit if it's only my water bill, it's no ones fucking business but mine.
A 'singular oddity' is an event that cannot be explained and only happens when you are alone.
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).