[privacy] Bigger Brother: FBI Prepares Vast Database Of Biometrics

[Paul Ferguson]

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Via The Washington Post.

[snip]

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.

[snip]

More:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR200712210
2544.html

- - ferg

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--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg(at)netzero.net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/