Police Adopting iPhone-Based Facial-Recognition Device, Raising Civil-Rights Questions

[somone]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303678704576440253307985070.html

Device Raises Fear of Facial Profiling
By EMILY STEEL And JULIA ANGWIN

Dozens of law-enforcement agencies from Massachusetts to Arizona are preparing to outfit their forces with controversial hand-held facial-recognition devices as soon as September, raising significant questions about privacy and civil liberties.

With the device, which attaches to an iPhone, an officer can snap a picture of a face from up to five feet away, or scan a person's irises from up to six inches away, and do an immediate search to see if there is a match with a database of people with criminal records. The gadget also collects fingerprints.

Until recently, this type of portable technology has mostly been limited to military uses, for instance to identify possible insurgents in Iraq or Afghanistan.

[TheWraith]

1. I have no problem as long as they have probable cause.

Any use of this without probable cause should be considered illegal.

[kick-ass-bob]

2. exactly.

they already take time to check ID for outstanding warrants, etc. If they just randomly stop someone on the side of the road, then I have a problem.

[krispos42]

3. Fa' sure, if you try to take a picture of a cop, though, your ass will be busted

And you'll get arrested, too.

[Mist]

4. Why does the gov't fear the populace? The police state shit is out of control. nt

[catabryna]

5. Do they dump the scans if they don't find a match

or will they end up in some database somewhere with a name attached? Ripe for abuse, if there aren't strict controls.

edit for typo.

[damntexdem]

6. And what are the civil rights issues? (I won't subscribe to read the article.)

How it this legally different from an officer's looking at a face and recognizing someone as wanted?

[KamaAina]

7. Fascism? There's an app for that.

:scared: