FBI Creating Massive Biometric Database

Biometrics refers to the study of identifying you by some physical characteristic. For ages, the fingerprint has been the ideal choice for identifying you without your express consent. These days, computerized surveillance cameras and a variety of other tracking techniques can automatically identify you by your body shape, the position of your facial features, and even the way you walk. With this in mind, the FBI wants to create a new $1 billion biometric database to track all these identifying characteristics.

Right now, the FBI tracks about 55-million sets of fingerprints in a database. This new program would expand that greatly, capturing and storing entire palm prints, scanning mugshots to identify facial features, and more. This could be a boon for crime investigators, but it could also be a nightmare for privacy advocates. Already the FBI will let hiring managers query their current database with the fingerprints of those would-be employees. The current policy is to use the fingerprints to scan and then discard them if no match is found.

Now, however, the FBI is indicating that it may change that policy and keep those fingerprints on record, tracking you even if you've never committed a crime. As always, in theory, there's nothing to worry about if you're not committing any crimes, but that's little comfort if you've read '1984' a few too many times and don't trust Big Brother.

From CNN.com

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Tags: Biometrics, breaking+news, FBI, Privacy, top, Tracking