You're being watched...

Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/21/AR2007122102544_pf.html

A lot of people criticize the government for becoming more and more invasive of American citizens' privacy. Now the government is taking it to another level. The FBI is expanding their criminal database to hold a wider variety of biometric data -- fingerprints, palm prints, iris patterns, face shapes, scars, and even people's ways of walking and talking. The government claims that this will make it easier to identify criminals.

The Defense Department has already been using a database of fingerprints, irises, and faces of Iraqis and foreigners with access to U.S. military bases for the past 2 years. The Department of Homeland Security also has a database of fingerprints and has been performing iris scans at select airports. The FBI's venture is called "Next Generation Identification." It will basically be a one-stop shop for the government's identification needs. All sorts of biometric data will be held in one single database.

This is a touchy subject. On the one hand, it could be a good thing. I'm all for nailing criminals quickly and efficiently. Having such an advanced database of biometric data could also deter crime if criminals know that there is little chance they can get away with it. As the article stated, it would be useful for the military to identify terrorists from afar.

On the other hand, this database can be considered an invasion of privacy. According to one official, "A traveler may walk down an airport corridor and allow his face and iris images to be captured without ever stepping up to a kiosk and looking into a camera." Many people would see this as a "Big Brother" type of act and a severe invasion of privacy, like you're always being watched. However, an argument can be made that as long as you are an upstanding citizen, uninvolved in crime, you have no reason to fear such technology. The face- and iris-scanning is only meant to catch criminals who are walking among us.

An interesting point made in the article concerns data security. If someone steals your credit card, you can cancel it and get a new one with a new number. But with biometric data, you can't simply change it. A Silicon Valley technology forecaster brings up the point, "If someone steals and spoofs your iris image, you can't just get a new eyeball." There's also the fact that the identification technology hasn't been perfected and it is very possible to falsely identify people as criminals. If the government wants to implement this system, it has a lot more work to be done on it first.