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« What Companies Do You Trust With Your Privacy? | Main | Encryption So Easy Even A Terrorist Can Use It »

FBI Plans to Catalog Everyone's Physical Characteristics, and Bush Does Away With Privacy Oversight Board

Here's something scary...

I just saw a new CNN report that made me go, "Huh?!"

"FBI wants palm prints, eye scans, tattoo mapping"

"The FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people's physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists. The FBI wants to use eye scans, combined with other data, to help identify suspects.

But it's an issue that raises major privacy concerns -- what one civil liberties expert says should concern all Americans.

The bureau is expected to announce in coming days the awarding of a $1 billion, 10-year contract to help create the database that will compile an array of biometric information -- from palm prints to eye scans."

Wow...$1 billion of tax payer money.

You think there will be objective and independent oversight to ensure the information is used appropriately?

Considering another headline from today, probably not.

"Abracadabra! Bush Makes Privacy Board Vanish"

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Posted by Rebecca Herold on February 4, 2008 4:36 PM |

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Comments

Hi Rebecca

The other concern is who "wathces the watchers" see (Corrupt US Customs agent sentenced for data deals - http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/security/0,39044215,62036805,00.htm)?

Also What assurances are given to people that their data is accurate, secured and can be corrected if required? It is not as if we can change our biometrics if they are compromised or incorrect.

Brian

Posted by: Brian Honan | February 4, 2008 5:27 PM

Thanks for your comment, Brian! :)

Indeed. The insider threat, even within what are considered as trusted govenment agencies, is significant; even more so within government agencies with such large masses of confidential information.

Posted by: Rebecca | February 4, 2008 8:55 PM

Rebecca,

Thanks for bringing attention to this. I hadn't heard about these stories and they are clearly something that concerned citizens should pay attention to.

Posted by: Ryan | February 6, 2008 10:47 AM

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Rebecca Herold's Bio:

Rebecca Herold,CISSP, CIPP, CISM, CISA, FLMI, has been providing information security, privacy and regulatory assistance and services to organizations from a wide range of industries for over 18 years. Rebecca was instrumental in building the information security and privacy program while at Principal Financial Group, which was awarded the CSI Information Security Program of the Year Award in 1998. IT Security ranked Rebecca as one of the top 59 IT security influencers, and Computerworld put Rebecca their list of the 25 top privacy experts and on their list of the 9 best privacy consulting firms. Rebecca has been CPO for two consulting organizations, and has had her own information privacy, security and compliance business since 2004. Rebecca has written chapters for several books, dozens of articles, and has been writing a monthly privacy column for the CSI Alert newsletter since the beginning of 2001, and is working on her 11th book. Some of her other books include The Privacy Papers, Managing an Information Security and Privacy Awareness and Training Program, The Definitive Guide to Security Inside the Perimeter (Realtime Publishers), The Shortcut Guide to Improving IT Service Support through ITIL (Realtime Publishers), and The Practical Guide to HIPAA Privacy and Security Compliance. In addition, Rebecca is the leader of The Realtime IT Compliance Community where she posts to her IT Compliance weblog. You can contact Rebecca at: rebecca_herold@realtimepublishers.net.