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<\/p>\nSoon the FBI will be done building a database containing the photographs, fingerprints and other biometric data for millions of Americans, but the agency has been far from forthcoming with the details. A new lawsuit filed this week aims to change that.<\/p>\n
\n The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital rights
\n group based out of California, sued the United States Department
\n of Justice this week for failing to comply with multiple Freedom
\n of Information Act requests filed last year by the EFF.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Federal Bureau of Investigation received no fewer than three
\n FOIA requests from the EFF last year for details about its
\n state-of-the-art Next Generation Identification program, or NGI,
\n a system that will store personally-identifiable data for
\n millions of Americans and foreign nationals to act as what the
\n FBI has called a “bigger, faster and better<\/i>” version of
\n what law enforcement already uses. But while the bureau has
\n indeed already been using fingerprint information to track down
\n potential terrorists and troublemakers for years, the EFF\u2019s main
\n concern revolves around what sort of space-age face recognition
\n abilities NGI will be able to employ.\n<\/p>\n
\n The FBI previously acknowledged that NGI will \u201chouse
\n multimodal biometrics records like palm prints and iris
\n scans<\/i>\u201d in one master system, as well as facial imaging
\n information and intelligence about scars, marks and tattoos.
\n Eventually, the agency said, it hopes to incorporate technology
\n to track down people using only their voice. For now, though, the
\n EFF is interested in what the facial recognition infrastructure
\n will be able to do, and is demanding the FBI fesses up.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cNGI will change almost everything about how the FBI treats
\n photograph submissions<\/i>,\u201d the complaint filed this week reads.
\n Citing government documents, the EFF says that the system will
\n allow \u201cthe increased capacity to retain photographic images,
\n additional opportunities for agencies to submit photographic
\n images and additional search capabilities, including automated
\n searches<\/i>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe proposed new system would also allow law enforcement \u2018to
\n collect and retain other images (such as those obtained from
\n crime scene security cameras\u2019 and from family and friends) and
\n would allow submission of \u2018civil photographs along with civil
\n fingerprint submissions that were collected for noncriminal
\n purposes<\/i>,\u2019\u201d the EFF continues.\n<\/p>\n
\n When all is said and done, the FBI will be able to use NGI to
\n scan millions of entries in a single database to find someone
\n based off of a single photograph, and the EFF fears that could
\n send things down a slippery slope.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cGovernmental use of face recognition \u2013 and the potential for
\n misuse \u2013 raises many privacy concerns<\/i>,\u201d the EFF says in the
\n lawsuit.\n<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n Using statements already made by the FBI about the program, the
\n EFF presents an argument about why they should be worried that\u2019s
\n hard to counter.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe FBI has also stated in a public presentation given at a
\n national biometrics conference that it wants to use its facial
\n recognition system to ‘identify unknown persons of interest from
\n images’ and ‘identify subjects in public datasets<\/i>,’\u201d the
\n complaint continues. \u201cIn the same presentation, the FBI
\n included a graphic image that implied the Bureau wanted to use
\n facial recognition to be able to track people from one political
\n rally to another<\/i>.\u201d\n<\/p>\n