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FBI Plans To Have 52 Million Photos In Facial Recognition Database By 2015

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by Mike Krieger of Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

I have highlighted the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and it great work on this website on many occasions. The organization has been at the forefront of many privacy and civil liberties related issues, including the increasing use of drones by the U.S. government domestically, unconstitutional NSA spying, as well as a host of other issues.

The latest article from them that caught my attention was published a couple of days ago, and shines light on the disturbing push by the FBI to create an extensive facial recognition database, which will include criminal and non-criminal photos alike. The information received by the EFF via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, demonstrates that the feds may have a mugshot database with up to 52 million photos by 2015.

The program is called Next Generation Identification (NGI), and the aspect of it that bothers the EFF most is the fact that non-criminal and criminal photos will be combined in the same database. So someone who has no criminal record can suddenly be flagged as a suspect just because an algorithm says so. What’s worst, research shows that the potential for false positive identification increases as the dataset increases.

To see if your state is participating, take a look at this map courtesy of the EFF.

Screen Shot 2014-04-16 at 10.52.50 AM

More from the EFF:

New documents released by the FBI show that the Bureau is well on its way toward its goal of a fully operational face recognition database by this summer.

 

EFF received these records in response to our Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for information on Next Generation Identification (NGI)—the FBI’s massive biometric database that may hold records on as much as one third of the U.S. population. The facial recognition component of this database poses real threats to privacy for all Americans.

 

NGI builds on the FBI’s legacy fingerprint database—which already contains well over 100 million individual records—and has been designed to include multiple forms of biometric data, including palm prints and iris scans in addition to fingerprints and face recognition data. NGI combines all these forms of data in each individual’s file, linking them to personal and biographic data like name, home address, ID number, immigration status, age, race, etc. This immense database is shared with other federal agencies and with the approximately 18,000 tribal, state and local law enforcement agencies across the United States.

 

The records we received show that the face recognition component of NGI may include as many as 52 million face images by 2015.

 

The new records reveal that the database will be capable of processing 55,000 direct photo enrollments daily and of conducting tens of thousands of searches every day.

 

One of our biggest concerns about NGI has been the fact that it will include non-criminal as well as criminal face images. We now know that FBI projects that by 2015, the database will include 4.3 million images taken for non-criminal purposes.

 

Currently, if you apply for any type of job that requires fingerprinting or a background check, your prints are sent to and stored by the FBI in its civil print database. However, the FBI has never before collected a photograph along with those prints. This is changing with NGI. Now an employer could require you to provide a “mug shot” photo along with your fingerprints. If that’s the case, then the FBI will store both your face print and your fingerprints along with your biographic data.

 

In the past, the FBI has never linked the criminal and non-criminal fingerprint databases. This has meant that any search of the criminal print database (such as to identify a suspect or a latent print at a crime scene) would not touch the non-criminal database.  This will also change with NGI. Now every record—whether criminal or non—will have a “Universal Control Number” (UCN), and every search will be run against all records in the database. This means that even if you have never been arrested for a crime, if your employer requires you to submit a photo as part of your background check, your face image could be searched—and you could be implicated as a criminal suspect—just by virtue of having that image in the non-criminal file. 

 

It is unclear what happens when the “true candidate” does not exist in the gallery—does NGI still return possible matches? Could those people then be subject to criminal investigation for no other reason than that a computer thought their face was mathematically similar to a suspect’s? This doesn’t seem to matter much to the FBI—the Bureau notes that because “this is an investigative search and caveats will be prevalent on the return detailing that the [non-FBI] agency is responsible for determining the identity of the subject, there should be NO legal issues.”

 

The FBI failed to release records discussing whether MorphoTrust uses a standard (likely proprietary) algorithm for its face templates. If it does, it is quite possible that the face templates at each of these disparate agencies could be shared across agencies—raising again the issue that the photograph you thought you were taking just to get a passport or driver’s license is then searched every time the government is investigating a crime.

 

Finally, even though FBI claims that its ranked candidate list prevents the problem of false positives (someone being falsely identified), this is not the case. A system that only purports to provide the true candidate in the top 50 candidates 85 percent of the time will return a lot of images of the wrong people. We know from researchers that the risk of false positives increases as the size of the dataset increases—and, at 52 million images, the FBI’s face recognition is a very large dataset. This means that many people will be presented as suspects for crimes they didn’t commit. This is not how our system of justice was designed and should not be a system that Americans tacitly consent to move towards.

Full article here.

 

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Thu, 04/17/2014 - 00:37 | 4668296 hangemhigh77
hangemhigh77's picture

This government and all these police agencies are locking us in a damn prison.  We need to start massing outside the headquarters of the FBI and storm the building and burn it down. Along with the Fed Reserve and all the other criminal agencies, EPA, FDA, CIA, BLM, ATF, DHS, TSA, the list is almost endless. Even the damn Post Offiv=ce is arming themselves against us.  This is getting WAAAAAY out of control.

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 01:07 | 4668347 Spungo
Spungo's picture

We already have 100 million dick pics from scanning everyone's phone. Now we need faces to match the dick pics.

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 01:53 | 4668432 Grouchy Marx
Grouchy Marx's picture

Snowden for President. 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 02:04 | 4668446 John Wilmot
John Wilmot's picture

Is there a piece of paper taped over your webcam?

If not, your face is in this database.

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 02:54 | 4668498 Lin S
Lin S's picture

You guys convinced me to bail out of facebook and I did so last year. 

Still have Twitter to follow ZH and some other alternative news outlets, but I have no pics or personal info posted or listed, there.

Even so, should I/we avoid Twitter, too?  Or is it too late already, anyway?

 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 03:09 | 4668504 Cthonic
Thu, 04/17/2014 - 03:51 | 4668552 Intoxicologist
Intoxicologist's picture

They probably already know all about us. 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 06:04 | 4668664 css1971
css1971's picture

And... hats come back into fashion.

 

Generate millions of random faces:

http://www.facegen.com/modeller.htm

Generate millions of fake bios to go with the faces. Upload to facebook.

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 06:08 | 4668669 Postal
Postal's picture

Sooo... where's our database of FBI agents?

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 06:19 | 4668680 negative rates
negative rates's picture

At the library.

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 06:21 | 4668681 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

Stratfor

Serco

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 06:19 | 4668679 Chuck Knoblauch
Chuck Knoblauch's picture

If you were dumb enough to post your pics on facebook, they have you.

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 06:38 | 4668693 Peter Pan
Peter Pan's picture

52 million?

They must be starting with food stamp recipients.

Anyway, I wonder how the system copes with someone who gets a black eye, grows a beard or gets a face lift.

 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 07:14 | 4668724 A_Nejad
A_Nejad's picture

It feels like one of those "smile you're on candid camera" moments, every fucking time I fly over there...

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 07:32 | 4668738 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

Back to IR.

I made a IR hat by getting two IR diodes. I stuck the leads thru the hat and wired them in series to a 9V battery. If you get the right hat (one with a lining or the old high-front redneck hat) you can make a spycam jammer, with the wiring and battery out of your hair (pun).

Then I tested it at work and reviewed the video. It blanked out the imaging chips inside the cameras. I am now working on an even lower-voltage version. Plus I have some other ideas.

You can also get or make some microwave jammers which you can carry. I have one that resembles a cell phone. When I am overseas, I turn it on when needed. It puts out a strong jamming signal and heats up, so you want to set it a couple of feet from you. I can jam a 90' diameter sphere around me with the device.

******

For safe protection of your PM, use a decent coin safe and put a brick in it. Place it in the house where a burgular can readily see it, snatch it and run.  I also built a barrel-key device onto a safe connected to a CS bomb. If you do not disarm the device or if you tamper with the wires, Boom! you are dosed with gas.

Get your imaginations going!

Keep stackin!

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 08:53 | 4669015 IndyPat
IndyPat's picture

I dig your style, Lakecity55

Have you tried the IR diode to surround your license plate?
Should white out the numbers pretty good.
Flat acrylic clear coat works too. Be sure and get an outdoor rated clear coat or your license plate will turn a shitty brown fast. You need one that's UV stabile.

I recently bought a FLIR rifle scope. Set me back a pile of paper, but there are few out on the "civilian" market, so I jumped on it. Been doing testing on ways to defeat it.
I've noticed two things...one of which was not listed as a feature in the documentation.
1) it can't see through glass. Like windows. You see yourself...like a mirror. People wearing glasses..it's the same. The glasses are solid black...
2) you can see chicks tits through cotton poly/cotton tshirts and sweatpants . I could actually see the outline of my wife's implants as a different shade. Nips. Lips. The worx. Only downside is that it's in the funky psychedelic heat map view....

Neato, huh? I'll post more when I know more...

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 16:19 | 4670740 lakecity55
lakecity55's picture

Hahaha, hey, we were working with a FLIR one day and a chick walked past. _____, my buddy squawks out, "hey, you can see her titties and panties!" We were fighting for the viewfinder. The military-grade stuff is awesome.

IMHO, FLIRTM is the best on the market. I have worked with them under all kinds of wx conditions.

conflict statement: I have considered their stock, but do not own any. I might get some if the market corrects lower.

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 08:18 | 4668869 Duude
Duude's picture

If you don't live in one of the grayed in states and lean conservative, you will be among the first in the database. 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 08:22 | 4668887 Schmuck Raker
Schmuck Raker's picture

If the FBI was the NSA they'de have 52 M photos ASAP. AFAIK they isn't, so they don't. So we got that going for us....

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 08:27 | 4668902 forwardho
forwardho's picture

RE;  Now every record—whether criminal or non—will have a “Universal Control Number” (UCN), and every search will be run against all records in the database.

Why would they not do this? A person is not a criminal until he/she is. Also new tech makes the storing and access easy.

As far as the number of images (52 million on file) thats a joke. All drivers licenses are and have been digital for some time. All are on file.

 If you have a license, have flown, gone to a bank, or just visited America, you have a file. There is no reasonable expectation of privacy in any public place.

We are already inside "The Cage" act accordingly.

 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 08:36 | 4668929 d edwards
d edwards's picture

But the corrupt Democrats and especially eRic The Red h0Lder raise hell about needing a photo ID to vote.

These crooked bastards don't think they can win without vote fraud.

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 08:45 | 4668974 Mi Naem
Mi Naem's picture

Yep, its them Democrats' fault. 

Its about time we elected more of them well-behaved Republicans who hold up the Constitution

before they wipe their asses with it. 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 08:27 | 4668904 autofixer
autofixer's picture

There was an error in the Headline, "52 Million photos..."  It should read:

FBI Plans To Have 352 Million Photos In Facial Recognition Database By 2015

Fixed it!

 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 08:38 | 4668940 SMC
SMC's picture

Might be a good time to re-read the "Stainless Steel Rat" series! LOL

http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/fingerprints_biometrics/ngi

http://www.lockheedmartin.com/us/products/ngi.html

Yet another corporate welfare program by the government that brought you the technological mavel known as Obummercare. ROFL. Somehow I doubt it will ever identify any of the "Just Us" crowd and their operational actors.

Where is the Mayflower and when is it leaving?

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 09:01 | 4669061 IndyPat
IndyPat's picture

Where is there to go? Shiny, pretty satellites....

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 08:42 | 4668962 Mi Naem
Mi Naem's picture

To my government, let me say, "I'm here to help". 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Butt_face.jpg

Kiss me baby!  Mmmmmmmmwwwwwah. 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 09:21 | 4669126 esum
esum's picture

makeup... 

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 09:33 | 4669181 chistletoe
chistletoe's picture

There is a solution for everything.

 

just google "Zentai" ....

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 10:54 | 4669500 PoliticalRefuge...
PoliticalRefugeefromCalif.'s picture

Yet photo id for voting is somehow ...

Thu, 04/17/2014 - 10:59 | 4669511 Ariadne
Ariadne's picture

This is not accurate. The 3d facial cameras were deployed in major metropolitan areas in the mid 90s. Every suspect booked whether they were prosecuted or not have been entered into the database where the equipment has been deployed since that time. Ten years ago the feds had at least 30 million faces and were seeking funding to do all the incarcerated. By spring 2002 the State DMVs were all officially linked together, creating the national database. During the Klinton regime the legal context of DMV law was separated from civil law. DMVs established their own courts and court system, which is not subject to civil law. For instance if you read your driver license agreement, by accepting the license you have agreed to waive your civil rights on the basis that the roads are State roads, funded by federal kickbacks of tax tribute. This is about establishing federal jurisdiction and precedent. Judges are whores, governors are pimps and we're all vsf.

 

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