FBI, Biometrics & World Policing

January 8 2008 by The Systemic Analyst.

The FBI seems to be creating an international clearinghouse of biometric data, if this Washington Post article is any indication. In a massive biometric system that is already storing new personal data such as facial images, finger and palm prints, international law enforcement agencies can look forward to cross searching millions (more likely billions when all is said and done) of biometric files including “iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk”, according to the Post.

Although touted as a necessary tool for police, known and suspected criminals won’t be the only individuals with files stored in the gargantuan system. As the Post reports:

“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.”

So much for trust in fellow man.

Americans might find comfort in knowing that they are not alone in being so closely watched as “more than 1.5 million Iraqi and Afghan detainees, Iraqi citizens and foreigners” have also been included in the system, contributing biometric data such as fingerprints, iris and face patterns and, in a separate system housed by the Department of Defense, DNA.

Anyone wishing to visit the U.S. can consider themselves apart of the group too. In addition to scanning irises at some airports, the Department of Homeland Security is also compiling a database containing millions of fingerprints of travelers passing through border checkpoints.

Allowing access to some “900,000 federal, state and local law enforcement officers” across the U.S., it is hoped that the system will eventually be capable of facilitating spot-check searches. Such applications of the system will included scanning fingerprints of drivers pulled over by police and capturing iris patterns “at distances of up to 15 feet, and of faces from as far away as 200 yards.”

Canadians are already enjoying access to the “underground facility the size of two football fields,” according to the Post, as part of the search requests reaching the FBI servers each second. The system will also be interoperable with much of the Anglo-world, as standards, used by Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, are employed.

It is debatable whether such an extensive effort is worth the tangible gains to be made in curtailing crime as a result of developing the large system.

With numerous points of access not just across the country but also internationally, the obvious question remains how the system will be secured? Unless the connectivity employed is so advanced that industry experts have no knowledge of it, it is probable that the data stored in this massive database is realistically vulnerable to attack, thus compromising the overall integrity of the system.

This is to say nothing of the human factor – always the biggest drawback to using technology in futile attempts to solve man’s problems. Even if those 900,000 people given access are screened beforehand at least one of them will allow the system to be compromised, deliberately or unintentionally.

The Post article reports, “The Pentagon has already matched several Iraqi suspects against the FBI’s criminal fingerprint database” which now houses some 55 million sets of records. In a system that will include anyone who has ever applied for a serious job, traveled to the U.S. or was ever stopped and questioned by police, is making “several matches” really relevant? Anyone can be in the system, verifying that with a search won’t really prove anything, it will just provide the person searching with ever-more information on individuals unlucky enough to believe that such measures will increase security.

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