Are YOU on the FBI's SECRET facial scanning database?

"...An investigation has found that a staggering 411 million photos are currently being stored in the FBI's facial recognition database – that's more than one photo of every citizen in the United States..."

http://www.express.co.uk/life-style...recognition-scanning-criminal-secret-database

"...A facial recognition database compiled by the FBI has more than 400 million images to help criminal investigations, but lacks adequate safeguards for accuracy and privacy protection, a congressional audit shows...."

http://phys.org/news/2016-06-huge-facial-recognition-database-flawed.html

 

I hope they got my good side.

 

411 million is an underestimate. Got to be double. There's cameras everywhere.

Especially for those in the UK. Everyone of them is in the database for sure.

 

These never are or ever will be concerns for the Alphabet Soup Bureaucracies.

 

For sure, it will include everyone who's travelled internationally to/from the US recently.

As far as the UK is concerned, the supposedly world-leading legislation represented by the current Investigatory Powers Bill makes not a mention of facial recognition (along with X-eyes data sharing, IMSI catchers, ANPR, etc etc). But it is very strong on "safeguards" which fool nobody - we've seen how they fail in real life, with the oversight bodies captured and asleep on the job, and people who do obviously illegal and immoral things getting off with at most, a slap on the wrist or given immunity.

 

The FBI's Facial Recognition Technologies Disrespect Your Privacy and Rights

-- Tom

 

This doesn't surprise me at all that they now have a database.

 

Those Iris scans work great. They are well worth the investment. I worked in Law Enforcement for many years, and they worked better than finger printing. We discovered many thousands of people in our custody giving false identifies that had past criminal records. We used them for several years, and then lost them due to lack of funding.

 

Were you at all concerned about false-positive rates, or the risks of data leakage? Is it your view that everyone in the country should be compelled to submit a scan to make LE's life easier?

 

What's the big deal? Most people have hundreds of photos of their face, friends and family uploaded to FB and Instagram - and tagged voluntarily.
Mrk

 

But that's voluntarily as opposed to involuntarily,or inevitability one day it will be involuntarily.I just feel that there should be a limit on just how invasive people/government can be.

 

I can assure you, not me!

 

Not in the EU, the face reco stuff is not allowed.

 

yes my best side too (!)

 

No, I don't think there's any reason to force everyone to get an Iris Scan, we only need them if someone gets arrested, and we are not sure who they are. Data protection should always be taken very seriously. I definitely support having them. I seen thousands of offenders identified with the Iris Scan that gave us false names over the years. I do not know of a single false positive. I'm not saying it can not happen, but I have never experienced a false positive. Here in the US we are flooded with immigrants in the country illegally from our southern border, and many of them give us a different name each time they are arrested. They could have a very long criminal record, arrest warrants, etc.., and we would have no way of knowing without technologies like the Iris Scan. Many citizens also do the same thing if they have arrest warrants, or a bad criminal record. I remember finding one person in our system with 9 different names that had been deported 4 times using the Iris Scan. After the Iris Scan flagged him I was able to cross check information he gave me with other offender records that turned out to be the same person.

 

I don't know. Am I in the database?

 

Not always the case...sometimes friends and family post photos without even asking!

I know I am good-looking (#Iamvain) but why must they post photos of me when I am not looking my best...aaarrgghhh!

 

"How a Facial Recognition Mismatch Can Ruin Your Life...

FBI facial recognition experts identified Steve Talley as a bank robber. They were wrong..."

https://theintercept.com/2016/10/13/how-a-facial-recognition-mismatch-can-ruin-your-life/

 

Exactly the problem with all these dodgy systems of mass surveillance and data mining. The innocent have a great deal to fear, because the false-positive rate can be tiny, yet out of a population of 600M, the innocent who are fingered will greatly outnumber the perps.

What's more, you may not even be aware of the damage, but still being harmed, and as in the no-fly databases, have limited or no redress, and certainly no proper compensation for that damage. Which, in my obviously antediluvian book is the basis for the rule of law, which they are trashing.

You'd also have thought that the wasted time & resources of LE would make them somewhat less gung-ho about enthusiastically adopting these systems, yet that does not account for the empire building boondoggle that applies to the managers and suppliers involved.

I do like some of the local initiatives that have started to scrutinise and de-fund some of these operations on a local basis, but this obviously does not apply to the FBI etc. The FBI also continue to attempt to justify and carry on using some of the disgraced forensic techniques (bite mark, hair analysis and so on) - which flies in the face of the science and suffer from the same false-positive problems. But what do they care about the innocent?

 

"These glasses trick facial recognition software into thinking you're someone else...

...Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University have shown that specially designed spectacle frames can fool even state-of-the-art facial recognition software. Not only can the glasses make the wearer essentially disappear to such automated systems, it can even trick them into thinking you’re someone else. By tweaking the patterns printed on the glasses, scientists were able to assume one another’s identities or make the software think they were looking at celebrities. (In the image at the top of the article, you can see the researchers wearing the glasses in the top row of pictures, and the identity they copied in the bottom row.)..."

http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/3/13507542/facial-recognition-glasses-trick-impersonate-fool

 

"Facial recognition database used by FBI is out of control House committee hears

Approximately half of adult Americans’ photographs are stored in facial recognition databases that can be accessed by the FBI, without their knowledge or consent, in the hunt for suspected criminals. About 80% of photos in the FBI’s network are non-criminal entries, including pictures from driver’s licenses and passports. The algorithms used to identify matches are inaccurate about 15% of the time, and are more likely to misidentify black people than white people..."

https://www.theguardian.com/technol...ition-database-fbi-drivers-licenses-passports

"Hello Mr. Smith. This is Tom Jones, Special Agent in Charge of the Los Angeles Office of the FBI. Just by happenstance we have your latest California drivers license photo in our facial recoginition database. We are looking for a child pornographer in California that is the same age as you. I was wondering if you would give us your permission to include your photo in our facial recognition scan looking for this pervert. I should advise you that our facial recognition scan delivers the wrong result 15% of the time. So would that be OK with you?"

 

I doubt it although the last time I was in the US was two years back...At any rate if I am, no problem, whine about it as much as you want...You are on video of every bank or major store you enter from arriving in the car park, entering the store, your movements in the store, leaving the store and leaving the car park...Its no big deal, I like the idea of public and security observation, why?...Because it assists in eliminating me from criminal activities.

 

"...The algorithms used to identify matches are inaccurate about 15% of the time..."

"Hello Mr Clubhouse. I am Los Angeles Assistant US Attorney Ronald Dowright. Mr. Clubhouse. Here's the deal. Plead guilty for a reduced sentence of 5 years or "roll the iron dice" and face a jury trial, spend $80,000 on defense counsel,and risk being found guilty and face a sentence of 20 years in a maximum security Federal Prison. BTW, child abusers are the most despised among the prison populations everywhere.

Oh. I forgot to mention that in the unlikely event that you survive in prison, when you are released you will be required to register as a sex offender wherever you live in the USA for the remainder of your life."

No Problem

 

I'm no American and in the 61 years I've been alive I've only entered a court as a juror...I still have no problem,...Let me ask this Mr Hawk, if you, a family member or a friend was a subject of a violent crime would you insist that you would have no interaction with the police if they were to use video surveillance to apprehend the perpetrator and convict them?...Would you refuse to assist them due to your objections as you state above?