http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquire ... 5/fbi-wants-build-massive

WITH THE EXCUSE that it wants to keep track of criminals and terrorists, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) plans to collect a massive biometrics database of people's physical characteristics, right down to the smallest details.

In coming days, the FBI is expected to award a $1 billion, 10-year contract to develop such a national database that will contain all kinds of biometric data, including photographs, fingerprints, palm prints, retinal scans, and even scar and tatoo mappings.

The biometric data collected will be linked to personal information including names, addresses and driver's licence and social security numbers.

In addition, such a database would reasonably be expected to also catalogue detail transactional data such as job applications, airplane boardings, border crossings and contacts with police and other law officers, in addition to any arrests and convictions.

Predictably, the official who will likely be in charge of Big Brother's biometrics database is all for it. The FBI's Biometric Services section chief, Kimberly Del Greco, said that the database is "important to protect the borders to keep the terrorists out, protect our citizens, our neighbors, our children so they can have good jobs, and have a safe country to live in."

Citizen privacy advocates at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) aren't convinced, and are anything but enthusiastic. Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Technology and Liberty Project, said, "It's the beginning of the surveillance society where you can be tracked anywhere, any time and all your movements, and eventually all your activities will be tracked and noted and correlated."

The FBI has reportedly promised to protect individual's personal information and only collect information and biometric data on criminals and those applying for employment in sensitive positions.

But the ACLU's Steinhardt doesn't believe the FBI will be able to restrain itself from gathering and collating more data. "This had started out being a program to track or identify criminals," Steinhardt said. "Now we're talking about large swaths of the population -- workers, volunteers in youth programs. Eventually, it's going to be everybody."

If the FBI really wants to collect fingerprints, retinal scans and tatoo maps on criminals and people in sensitive jobs, perhaps it ought to start with everyone in the US Congress, all the corporate lobbyists in Washington DC, all Federal and state judges and prosecutors, and everyone working for the FBI and all other Federal government agencies, as well as all the personnel in state and local law enforcement agencies. Only then should the FBI start taking citizens' biometrics.

If the FBI can get all those people to go along with this plan, more power to it. µ


Undra när "EU polisen" som faktiskt motsvarar "FBI" ska komma igång ordentligt? Då lär vi få se liknande manövrar här i "god ´ol EU" :(