Process 600 Billion a Day!

I'm one of those people who rationally thought that Big Brother wasn't possible, even with the advent of Super-Computers because there was just too much data to possibly monitor 6 Billion people at once for any Agency or Government to accomplish.

I think I just changed my mind.

FBI Lab Processes 600 Billion Fingerprint Sets a Day - Wired Article

FBI Lab Processes 600 Billion Fingerprints a Day - CBS Article

Go Inside FBI's Crime Fighting Lab - WBNS 10TV Original Story

The FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services [underground] building in Clarksburg [West Virginia] houses a multibillion-dollar computer system that processes 600 billion fingerprint sets a day...Agents in the field use wireless scanners to transmit fingerprint samples to the center, where matches can be returned as quickly as seven seconds. The facility also processes fingerprint searches on travelers scanned at border entry points under the U.S. Visit program, as well as on teachers, day-care center employees, government workers and others who must undergo background checks for their jobs.

But wait! There's more! West Virginia University students are helping the FBI expand the use of this facility to add biometric records to the database — such as iris and face scans! Fingerprints, after all, are soooo Old Skool.

This kind of sheds new light on what kinds of potential the new NSA 200-Acre Datacenter in Utah can and will be used for, as by comparison, this FBI facility in Clarksburg is only the size of two football fields.

NSA To Build Huge Facility in Utah

If this doesn't make you concerned, then you aren't paranoid enough.

Great post!

As technology advances and crime continues to get smaller and smaller people should question why we need these systems. The amount of money they cost, combines with all the ways they can be misused should get the questions going.

I don't think everything like this bad, but it can be used for bad things. People should know it is there and AT LEAST ask questions about why it is there.

Good post,

But I have one question.

How do they process 600 Billion prints a day. The problem with that is the fact that there are a little less than 7 billion people in the world, for them to process 600 billion prints that means they are processing more finger prints then what currently exists on earth by a factor of x100.

Hate to say it but this reeks of government propaganda.