He knows when you've been bad or good ...

Like I mentioned yesterday, there are just too many government agencies and non-governmental groups that want my magic ball of string.

There are a number of different topics that I have been hoping to have time to write about, this just came up and I thought that it would be nice to share. This is the season of sharing - like the head cold that I got from a nice person on BART for example...

So in the big struggle between the civilians (represented by DOJ), and the military (represented by NSA and in part DHS) to scoop up all of your personal data we have another move.

As have been discussed again and again, NSA + DHS have been gathering all the publicity for hoovering up everybody's packets and doing interesting graph analysis on them. Not to be out done, DOJ is now entering into contract to spend 1 billion dollars on a vast database of uniquely identifiable characteristics:

Digital images of faces, fingerprints and palm patterns are already flowing into FBI systems in a climate-controlled, secure basement here. Next month, the FBI intends to award a 10-year contract that would significantly expand the amount and kinds of biometric information it receives. And in the coming years, law enforcement authorities around the world will be able to rely on iris patterns, face-shape data, scars and perhaps even the unique ways people walk and talk, to solve crimes and identify criminals and terrorists. 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.

Two things - the money has already been allocated since they have a ten year contract to award. No surprise there. Nice to know that they are sharing in the budget pain with the rest of the government. The second and more, well evil, is the notion that the normal firewall between your average corporation and law enforcement seems to be gone here. Reminds me of the gilded age where the nice robber barons had such a good working relationship with law enforcement. Mind you, a brush with the law is not the judicial system finding a person guilty.

But it does get better...

Again, from the article:

The FBI is building its system according to standards shared by Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

At the West Virginia University Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR), 45 minutes north of the FBI's biometric facility in Clarksburg, researchers are working on capturing images of people's irises at distances of up to 15 feet, and of faces from as far away as 200 yards. Soon, those researchers will do biometric research for the FBI.

Covert iris- and face-image capture is several years away, but it is of great interest to government agencies.

As a personal note, I wonder if that anachronistic notion that law enforcement should have a reason to go poking about my business will ever be meaningful again. On a less philosophical note is the problem of false positives. As an exercise for the reader, you can connect the dots back to other posts regarding similar activity. PAB is just getting up and there is much to do before Squidmass eve!!

Feel safer yet?