Police to Scan Faces and Eyes, Prompting Privacy Concerns

Police to Scan Faces and Eyes, Prompting Privacy Concerns

blogs.forbes.com

Law enforcement agencies across the U.S. may soon start using handheld facial recognition devices, raising concerns about privacy and legality in the digital age.

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Related News Links:
policelink.monster.com

MORIS: Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System.
IPhone apps, available to law enforcement only, scan faces to check for criminals from up to five feet away. Six inches away police can identify your iris. Fourty agencies purchased the technology ( and may be using it) already. This year many more agencies will be using them.



Biometrics quickly becoming a norm in America.
Can foresee future use In conjunction with Fabebook picture scans. Doesn't matter if your real name/ location is presented on your Facebook, you will be found.

blogs.forbes.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

This is already going on all over the world. I saw scanners in the UK where you could have your eye scanned and take a shortcut through security. Last time I entered the UAE they scanned my retinas before I was allowed entry. I thought about turning around and leaving.

The USA is following the world on this one, and we're way behind. I'm not arguing FOR it, just saying it is becoming common practice world-wide.

i smell a ripe market for contact lenses to block this sort of scan hmm i should pattent that!

the can scan my foot and my boot, then they can scan it shoved so far up the cops ass that it'll be the only way the surgeon can locate it and remove it.

reply to post by Schkeptick

Exactly.
There's a conference this month in the UK on Biometrics. US will have one coming up soon. Brazil was using similar scans earlier this year.

Contact lenses wont work. Have you seen facebooks facial recognition technology. Even wearing sunglasses or a mask will not fool. This is minority report.

reply to post by dreamingawake


Im kind of torn on this one. People do not have an expectation of privacy in public, however this seems a bit far to me. We already use a similar system for license plates. Some agencies have modifid cruisers that have cameras all over it. While the officer patrols, the camera system on the car scans license plates, and will alert the officer if they receive a "hit" (stolen vehicle / warrant attached to the license plate for the driver / drug/gang affiliated etc).

To me this seems to fall squarely back onto the argument of:
If you have nothing to hide then don't worry about anything.

That argument bugs the snot out of me for obvious reasons....

If this goes forward I would like to see tight controls placed on it. The Iris scan is a no go for me since its as unique as fingerprints are, and we are required to have PC in order to obtain a persons fingerprints (If they want to scan an iris, get a warrant or ask for consent).

While I understand that as we move forward, technology is going to evolve as well. What concerns me though is how the legal system can lag behind new crime fighting techniques, with changes to the system only occuring by appeals or supreme courts who get a case that is successfully argued by defense on abuses / over the line.

Since a person must be "harmed" by a law in order to have legal standing to challenge, we are alrady behind the 8 ball.

We need some type of legislation now that extends basic protections to the individual when dealing with new age technology.

As an example:
Can this device be used against people who are driving a vehicle?

If so -

Will the system, when scanning the persons face in the car, only be accessing the warrant database? Or will it also be hooked into the Department of Motor Vehicles database and alert the officer that the person driving has no valid operators license?

The supreme court has ruled that we do have a limited expectation of privacy in a motor vehicle. Does it cover this?

Can it be employed at DWI checkpoints?
What if you are sitting in a resteraunt?
Your house?

Like I said I dont mind when new technology comes out that helps law enforcement. I would like to see safeguards in place though prior to full rollout that address the conerns.

I started a thread a couple years back called Suspect Detection Systems, this technology is not only capable of identification, it can also recognise facial paterns and allegedly discern hostile intent, in other words, Pre-crime. Also rather eerily, this technology was develped and implemented by former IDF and MOSSAD goons for US international airport security and other transportation hubs before being marketed to law enforcement and private sectors.

reply to post by Xcathdra


Facial recognition pictures can be taken up to five feet away. So, when driving it is possible, don't know how fast the shudder speed, etc, is to have a steady image, situation depends. At a stoplight, being parked, would of course be easier to obtain the picture.
Picture taken, face scanned, brought up, enforcement is saying it will be easier than just confronting the person, but rather to look them up on the database to see if they are wanted, or to probably bring up other information, sure to show at least a suspended license, or if not they call the dept. of motor vehicles.

Can it be employed at DWI checkpoints?
What if you are sitting in a resteraunt?
Your house?

DWI checkpints, probably...
Restaurant or any public place, they are saying since you're in public they have a right to take a picture.
House, now that is pushing it... I'd guess if they have obtained a warrant(or none in some cases) on the home in question, then just as with asking for IDs/license they will scan instead.
With the articles coming out of officers breaking into homes, reportedly to show people that they may be a victim of home invasion, then sure. Looking in your window, might be the questionable one; it's not public but some may claim it is if the curtain is open(I've seen cops peak in windows looking for a suspect), so in that case, may be possible.

reply to post by dreamingawake


so what ?

no , seriously - what is the issue here ?

police units have histocicaly carried flip books of watnet / suspects photos

the bittish army in northern ireland carried terrorist recognition cards

now with advanced technology - LEOs are carring a device with face / features recognition apps

so what ?

I posted a thread that was 404'd a long time ago. It has recently appeared in the RATS again and all I can say is "I told you so."

Just so you know, those cameras at the intersection take pictures of your face.

Also, any camera linked to the grid is taking your picture and biometrically checking it against a database.

It feels good for you guys to finally realize theres a fence there, now realize that it has been theref or some time, and ask yourself what you're going to do about it.

Just a thought...

Seen any plain white blimps lately?

reply to post by sbctinfantry


So .. not only the camera in Wal Mart, or the main area of the Mall, and the bank and the ATM at the bank (and some other ATMs) ... and now you say the Traffic Light Camera is mug shooting as well? ... Hope it does not lip read, can it tell if I am singing or swearing? ... Probably by the eyebrows!!

If you get mugged and someone takes your card to the ATM will it save your account if it is not your mug in the camera lens? ... or will it just be after the fact evidence?



I drive my elderly mother about, and do many of her "shopping" tasks for her .. using her cards.
Wal Mart recently stopped me .. right at the check out ... and told me not to use my Mother's cards in Wal Mart unless they were debit. ....

So .. not only did they have presence of mind that I was in the store, but knew I used her cards as well as my own, and they warned me ... not to sign my name to her card (as I always do) or they would be immediately turned off ....

Nice to be warned .. I wonder if Wal Mart is the only one.

I wonder if it rankles TPTB, .. that they have all this going on, but are still not allowed to simply chip us, take a DNA sample, and take the short route to cataloging all the bodies on the planet. .. ???
Really your smart phone is always giving you away, anyway!!

Is it really all for the sake of security, I wonder, or is there some other darker thinking going on?

reply to post by dreamingawake


I can they use of this technology very beneficial at the processing level, after you are in cuffs, at the jail, and been read your rights. Might clear up a lot of things, but for use on the street in public no. One does not have a right to privacy in public, but also in country the law states that one does not have to reveal photo id to law enforcement unless they are being charged with a crime. What would stop a law official from using this technology to just randomly scan people to find stuff out about them.

Amazingly enough it seems the end run around all of the security precautions is already designed and in many cases patented!! .. I just came across this thread ...

Mind Control Patents:

... and much worse .. a thread from someone who lost an hour and 15 minutes of "consciousness" between leaving his friends house .. and arriving at his "base" ... (I assume some type of military base?)

I cannot find the link in Firehose, now, but it was sorta like .. did anyone notice anything over __(city-name), WA last night ... or to that effect! ....

There are times I think we are being used by forces we don't even begin to comprehend.

Wal mart has deals with DHS to put in telepromters telling you, "If you see something, say something."

You really think that it's that far fetched that they wouldn't be pumping sales data along with video data to the government?

When you arise tomorrow in the morning, realize you are a human being with blinders and blind spots. You're only awake to a small fraction of what goes on in your day to day.

There is someone watching.

Minority Report - where "PreCrime", a specialized police department, apprehends criminals based on foreknowledge. And who can still not see that a very deceptive group is not ruling our world?

This is ridiculous. I guess we'll see if all this facial recognition software can identify a person through a hat, sunglasses, and a beard because that is my new going out uniform.

reply to post by Xcathdra


I don't like that license plate system. Basically it looks around for someone that has had a run in with the law and then alerts the cop so they can harass them. If someone gets a drug charge they are likely to be constantly harassed.

reply to post by dreamingawake


And then they start automating them and putting them everywhere and people start getting fines for running lights or speeding in their email inboxes. Just sounds like more tools to rip the people off. Cops in my town stopped serving and protecting a long time ago. My gf is afraid to drive because she is pulled over so much and she has never been in trouble of any kind. She has been pulled over around 6 times this month.
She got a ticket the other night for speeding.. she wasn't over that much I think 8 mph and she was the designated driver dealing with three drunk people.. a good cop would consider the responsibility of the the situation and probably let her go. Not here though. They also follow her for miles and one or two have hit on her while she was pulled over.