FBI Ramps Up Biometrics Programs to Catalogue Information on Everyone in America

[marmar]

[font size="3"][font color="blue"]The FBI seems to think we should all be OK with this[/font][/font]

By Jennifer Lynch, Electronic Frontier Foundation:

In the last few years, FBI has been dramatically expanding its biometrics programs, whether by adding face recognition to its vast Next Generation Identification (NGI) database or pushing out mobile biometrics capabilities for “time-critical situations” through its Repository for Individuals of Special Concern (RISC). But two new developments—both introduced with next to no media attention—will impact far more every-day Americans than anything the FBI has done on biometrics in the past.

[font size="3"][font color="blue"]FBI Combines Civil and Criminal Fingerprints into One Fully Searchable Database[/font][/font]

Being a job seeker isn’t a crime. But the FBI has made a big change in how it deals with fingerprints that might make it seem that way. For the first time, fingerprints and biographical information sent to the FBI for a background check will be stored and searched right along with fingerprints taken for criminal purposes.

The change, which the FBI revealed quietly in a February 2015 Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA), means that if you ever have your fingerprints taken for licensing or for a background check, they will most likely end up living indefinitely in the FBI’s NGI database. They’ll be searched thousands of times a day by law enforcement agencies across the country—even if your prints didn’t match any criminal records when they were first submitted to the system.

This is the first time the FBI has allowed routine criminal searches of its civil fingerprint data. Although employers and certifying agencies have submitted prints to the FBI for decades, the FBI says it rarely retained these non-criminal prints. And even when it did retain prints in the past, they “were not readily accessible or searchable.” Now, not only will these prints—and the biographical data included with them—be available to any law enforcement agent who wants to look for them, they will be searched as a matter of course along with all prints collected for a clearly criminal purpose (like upon arrest or at time of booking). ...................(more)

http://wolfstreet.com/2015/09/19/fbi-ramps-up-biometrics-programs-to-catalogue-information-on-everyone-in-america/

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Well, they've had mine since college anyway.

The collect them for all of the ROTC folks, even the ones that don't go on and finish the program.

[MineralMan]

3. They've had mine for a very long time, as well.

I can't imagine how that would adversely affect me in any way, really. Aside from my fingerprints being taken during my enlistment in the USAF, they've been taken several other times, as well, including when I was a volunteer mentor for Big Brothers/Big Sisters.

[hedda_foil]

2. We need to get this to the greatest page, marmar. Everyone needs to read the full piece.I

This sounds like a Philip K Dick sci-fi scenario. I can think of all too many ways this could destroy any remaining semblance of liberty... especially for people of color, but eventually including everyone.

[Blus4u]

4. And people wonder why conspiracy theories get so much traction in this country!

eom

Peace

[leveymg]

5. The day will come when you can't drive a car, ride in a plane, train or bus without biometrics

Last edited Sun Sep 20, 2015, 02:05 PM - Edit history (1)

One more mass casualty event in the "homeland" -- as is almost inevitable -- and this will be a total police state.

[For Freddie]

19. Already Here...

Why anyone has any expectation of "privacy" any where in the world anymore is due to naivete and denial. With the ever growing technology and Corporate World State it is childish to feel the old ideals of privacy are ever going to be in place or ever were as the technology grows.

I was raised in a Sicilian neighborhood. No one "expected privacy".
This was the late 1940's/50's/60's. Each generation of white middle class kids coming up get "shocked" and offended by the reality of no one has privacy and has not had any for a long long time.

I was on a watch list long ago and I assumed they had everything on me for ever. Now these news blips come out to scare and intimidate a whole new generation of kids "shocked" their "privacy" is threatened. If you have EVER been a political activist first real life truth is there IS no privacy. And you do it anyway. Because it is the right, kind and compassionate thing to do. Being Brave and going forth no matter what "they know about you" is part of the job description. You just keep going. Like Bernie.

I doubt activists of color or of the not white middle class culture growing up had an "expectation of privacy". The Constitution is
seen as a nice anachronistic ideal no longer adhered to in the Corporate World State. And in time will be be transformed to meet
the needs emerging of that state. Street Life Reality.

The way to survive is to accept this street life reality and still go for it like Bernie. Go for it like Gandhi and MLK and Malcolm.
Who cares what they know. BE BRAVE. Go for it.
And don't let the "shocking revelations" of our "crumbling freedoms" scare you, intimidate you or get you down.

The film TRUMBO is coming out this winter with Brian Cranston playing Dalton Trumbo. Go see it kids.

[leveymg]

22. What changed is technology has made totalitarianism practical for the first time outside of small

village or neighborhood life. The entire country is now Little Italy writ large.

My grandfather was one of the last Hollywood producers willing to hire Dalton. I know about that part of this country's history. You are right, anyone who is even remotely radical knows they have no privacy. My own dossier goes back a long way.

[99th_Monkey]

6. Why is this shit going on, under a Democratic Administration?

I just don't get that, and have a strong suspicion that this kind of
intrusive draconian undermining of civil liberties will only get worse
under another Clinton Administration, the one that brought us the
Tough-on-crime, mass incarceration & police militarization.

[MisterP]

9. if McCain were the one doing all these things Washington would've been gridlocked with human

protesters for 8 years now

that's why they're doing it under a Dem

[leveymg]

16. A Neoliberal Police State is pretty much the same as a Conservative Police State

Very much a bipartisan effort.

[RufusTFirefly]

7. Relax America! It's all being done to keep you safe!!

We must protect das Homeland!!

[pocoloco]

11. Close, but no cigar!

It's all being done to keep your government safe!

[bvar22]

17. You missed the target too.

It is being done to protect the 1% and their wealth.

[zeemike]

18. And the government is the 1% property

So if you protect one you protect the other.

[bvar22]

23. Not really.

Blaming "The Government" is a favorite of The Libertarians.
Since I vote in every election, I am a part of that anonymous, monolithic, homogeneous mass of people you blame as the "The Government. If you are correct, then how do you explain Bernie.... or for that matter, how do you explain yourself?

YOU, as an American Citizen, are a part of the US Government,
and, as such, it is YOUR responsibility for correcting the elements that you believe are wrong.
Blaming the "Government" is very vague and unproductive.

[zeemike]

24. Well of course you are right, we are the government.

But they OWN the mechanisms of government. And that came from privatizations of everything from the military to the prison complex.
And because they have bought the politicians, not all but enough to win any vote in congress, they control it even though in theory it is ours. And being able to control something is as good as having the deed to it.

And that is why Bernie is important, especially taking the money out of politics, because it is the money that they use to control.

[JEB]

8. Walt Whitman would not approve.

"There is no week nor day nor hour when tyranny may not enter upon this country, if the people lose their supreme confidence in themselves, -- and lose their roughness and spirit of defiance -- Tyranny may always enter -- there is no charm no bar against it -- the only bar against it is a large resolute breed of men [and women]."

-- Walt Whitman, "American Democracy," Brooklyn Eagle (1847)

[lunatica]

10. the irony is that his fingerprints would be in that database too no matter what he says

My fingerprints are in it simply because my fingerprints were taken years ago in the University of California police department because my work involves funds. I also have my fingerprints in the DMV database for getting a driver's license.

There is nothing short of surgery on my fingertips that I can do about it.

[JEB]

13. Walt would possibly make the no fly list.

Sad to see a nation of sheep bleating in the pen.

[For Freddie]

20. Super Glue

Super Glue, Nail adhesive glue can block prints.
Criminals have known this for a long time.
No need for surgery.

[lunatica]

25. thanks!

I'll try it out and start a life of crime! I've always wondered what it would be like to the Lady's version of Thomas Crown.

[RufusTFirefly]

12. Sure he would!

Or don't you know his poem "I hear America singing"?

[JEB]

14. Walt listened with a different intent than the FBI

Walt Whitman (1819-1892)

I Hear America Singing.

I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe
and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off
work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deck-
hand singing on the steamboat deck,
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing
as he stands,
The woodcutter's song, the ploughboy's on his way in the morn-
ing, or at noon intermission or at sundown,
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work,
or of the girl sewing or washing,
Each singing what belongs to him or her and to none else,
The day what belongs to the day—at night the party of young
fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.

[jwirr]

15. I am against this - almost everyone posting here is

against this. So I am going to throw out something that I overheard at a family gathering.

Our family has quite a bit of mental illness in our members. We were talking about Nazism and how glad we were that our ancestors had come to the USA so that we did not participate in the hatred.

Someone mentioned how they had used the IBM program to identify the Jews. My brother who is bi-polar immediately talked about how we blame all the shootings on the mentally ill.

He is not pro-gun in anyway as the first thing the doctors told us was to keep guns away from him for his sake. But he is scared to death of letting all the police forces label all the people with a mental illness so they can stop gun sales to this group. And I see his point.

So how are we going to protect a vulnerable group and still have a way to know who should not have a gun? Because if they are already amassing all of us in their file it is only a matter of time before they can identify groups they can target.

[erronis]

21. And most of the US POI are in the SF-86 dump so everyone else knows about this too.

Way to go, US Gov. You really don't like your own citizens very much, do you?

Do you have a dropbox for more info? I'd really like to send you a recent picture of my colonoscopy as well as this morning's movements.

[Holly_Hobby]

26. I don't have fingerprints...

they were worn away many years ago, from piano, typing and shuffling paper.

I recently got a job where you need to put your finger on the time clock. Guess who doesn't have to cuz I don't have fingerprints! They had to come up with a way for me to use a PIN instead.

[hunter]

27. Good luck if they can figure this out:

http://news.stanford.edu/news/2000/june28/geckos-628.html

I'll be laughing my ass off when they haul that GEICO guy off to GITMO.

[Octafish]

28. Wonder what they will do with all that information?

Maybe the nice GESTAPO is fitting us for some new threads? Something in orange.

Cowards on bended knee will think it better than a new permanent address inside a pine box six feet under, I guess.

[davidpdx]

29. I know here in Korea, immigration requires a fingerprint scan of everyone coming into

the country. I have to do it every time I leave and come back. I'm surprised it is not required by the US yet.