Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform
Source: Wired
The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.
Buried in the more than 800 pages of the bipartisan legislation is language mandating the creation of the innocuously-named photo tool, a massive federal database administered by the Department of Homeland Security and containing names, ages, Social Security numbers and photographs of everyone in the country with a drivers license or other state-issued photo ID.
Employers would be obliged to look up every new hire in the database to verify that they match their photo.
... It starts to change the relationship between the citizen and state, you do have to get permission to do things, said Chris Calabrese, a congressional lobbyist with the American Civil Liberties Union. More fundamentally, it could be the start of keeping a record of all things.
Read more: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2013/05/immigration-reform-dossiers/