FC: U.S. military's database of terror suspects prints, faces, voices

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Oct 30 2002 - 08:47:28 PST

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    From: "Richard M. Smith" <rmsat_private>
    To: "'Declan McCullagh'" <declanat_private>
    Subject: U.S. military building database of terror suspects' fingerprints, 
    faces, voices
    Date: Tue, 29 Oct 2002 17:36:11 -0500
    
    Hi Declan,
    
    The attached article is not good PR for the commercial biometrics
    market.  I find that many people are skittish about using finger print
    scanners because they associate finger prints with criminals.  Now the
    US Army is giving the impression that all forms of biometrics are really
    good for tracking terrorists.  Hmm, do I really want to have my iris
    scanned like a terrorist just so I can get through that passport line
    quicker?
    
    Richard M. Smith
    http://www.ComputerBytesMan.com
    
    =================================================
    
    http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=524&u=/ap/20021029/ap_wo_en_po/us_terror_biometrics_2&printer=1
    
    U.S. military building database of terror suspects' fingerprints, faces,
    voices
    
    1 hour, 33 minutes ago
    By JIM KRANE, AP Technology Writer
    
    NEW YORK - The United States is compiling digital dossiers of the
    irises, fingerprints, faces and voices of terrorism suspects and using
    the information to track their movements and screen foreigners trying to
    enter the country.
    
    Since January, military and intelligence operatives have collected the
    identifying data on prisoners in Afghanistan (news - web sites) and at
    the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. There are also plans to
    extend the collection process to Iraq in the event of a U.S. invasion.
    
    With this project, the U.S. government has taken biometrics - the
    measuring of human features - well beyond its most common use to date:
    verifying people's identities before giving them access to computers or
    secure areas.
    
    "We're trying to collect every biometric on every bad guy that we can,"
    said Lt. Col. Kathy De Bolt, deputy director of the Army battle lab at
    Fort Huachuca, Arizona, where the biometric tools being used were
    developed.
    
    "Any place we go into - Iraq or wherever - we're going to start building
    a dossier on people of interest to intelligence. Even if they get
    released, we have face and voice clips. When they come into one of our
    checkpoints, we can say, `You're this bad guy from here.'"
    
    ...
    
    
    
    
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