CLARKSBURG, W. Va. — The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world’s largest computer database of peoples’ physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad. Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI will also retain, upon request by employers, the fingerprints of employees who have undergone criminal background checks so the employers can be notified if employees have brushes with the law. ‘Bigger. Faster. Better. That’s the bottom line,’ said Thomas E. Bush III, assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services Division, which operates the database from its headquarters in the Appalachian foothills. The increasing use of biometrics for identification […]
Monday, December 24th, 2007
FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics
Author: ELLEN NAKASHIMA
Source: Washington Post
Publication Date: Saturday, December 22, 2007; A01
Link: FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics
Source: Washington Post
Publication Date: Saturday, December 22, 2007; A01
Link: FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics
Stephan: Yet another incursion into the realm of our civil liberties. We have been slowly destroying our privacy for seven years. In that time have you grown to feel safer? It has stopped terrorists is the argument for what is being done. Really? Stop for a minute and think: If you and three friends were determined to create a terrorist event, do you seriously believe you couldn't pull it off? Think carefully about that before answering. Particularly if you were willing to die in the process? We have not had a terrorist event for the past seven years, because the people who commit such acts have not found it in their interest to do so. That's a reality that is politically inconvenient to talk about.