FBI launches powerful face recognition/tracking system

[woo me with science]

http://money.cnn.com/2014/09/16/technology/security/fbi-facial-recognition/index.html

FBI launches a face recognition system

By Jose Pagliery @Jose_Pagliery September 16, 2014: 4:48 PM ET

NEW YORK (CNNMoney)
The FBI can now quickly identify people just by looking at their faces. Coming soon: eyes, voice, palm print and walking stride. It's called the FBI's Next Generation Identification system, and the agency said it became fully operational Monday. The government expects the system's database to house 51 million photographs by next year -- and keep growing.... it's not just for the FBI. Police everywhere will be able to tap into the system. They'll quickly ID fingerprints during a routine traffic stop -- or look up a face while investigating a crime.
....
Surprised the FBI didn't have this before? It actually had a limited, low-tech version ....The NGI system, which started as a pilot program in 2009, was designed by defense contractor Lockheed Martin (LMT) in a deal worth up to $1 billion. The facial recognition software was built by MorphoTrust, a Billerica, Massachusetts-based company that already does the biometric scans at 450 U.S. airports and DMVs in 42 states.
.....
But it's already a major privacy concern, because of its potential to relentlessly track innocent people. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued the Justice Department to get details on the program, but questions remain. For example, the FBI said it will gather data from security cameras at a crime scene. But does that include the estimated 30 million surveillance cameras installed at street corners and parks?

If the FBI information slide below is any indication, the FBI is interested in using NGI system to identify a random person in a crowd -- and track them as they move, said EFF attorney Jennifer Lynch. That's why the Electronic Privacy Information Center worries the NGI system will get integrated with CCTV cameras everywhere -- including at private businesses -- and let the government track folks without justification....
....

First Published: September 16, 2014: 4:20 PM ET

[hobbit709]

1. Wait until the thought police start.

[woo me with science]

2. No privacy.

No dissent.

[hobbit709]

5. from one of my favorite books.

"I will not pass the probe," said Sam, "even if I build up a mighty prayer account. They'll snare me when it comes to sin."
"What sort of sin?"
"Sins I have yet to commit, but which are being written in my mind as I consider them now."

[RKP5637]

41. That, is absolutely in the works. I was reading someplace that the pentagon has or is commissioning

a study to detect those who are, in essence, fed up with the country the way it is, but do not belong to any outspoken groups. Hence, they feel they are flying under the radar. Hell, that's most of DU IMO.

[GeorgeGist]

3. Track this ...

[mainer]

4. Recently returned home from foreign trip ... and found new kiosks taking our photos

It was at Logan airport in Boston last week. I fly out of there all the time, and these kiosks are new. Everyone arriving at Terminal E (international) must insert their passport while a camera snaps a photo of their face.

They say it's to "speed up the process" for harried customs officers, but why take our photos?

http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2014/07/22/logankiosks/kGIlXZbf0uodPjZGKlktaM/story.html

[JimDandy]

10. To compare your passport photo to your face?

If you have a US passport, your passport photo is surely already in this facial recognition database.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. "It’s really a customer service imperative,..."

Interesting use of words..
a "service" that is "imperative" does not sound like a customer "service" to me.

[Recursion]

25. Well, in Europe and Asia the system verifies that your face matches your passport photo

Apparently computers can do that pretty well (match certain bone structure features or something like that). No idea if the US version is doing that.

[Chan790]

33. Facial mapping.

Not just bone structures. The distance between your eyes, the length of your nose from base (up around your eyebrows) to the bottom of the bony-pyramid (roughly even with the bottoms of your eye-sockets), and other non-alterable or rarely-altered facial characteristics.

They've been testing systems like this for almost a decade now...they're good enough to be able to recognize people surgically-altered to an extent that they are not recognizable to their own families...the computer is not easily fooled.

Welcome to the Panopticon state.

[Recursion]

37. And the problem is?

If a border control agent checking your photo is OK why is a computer checking it not ok?

[Chan790]

45. It's only situationally okay.

I have no issue with it being used to check my picture at customs.

I have an issue because I don't believe it will stop there, that it will inevitably end up in the hands of regular law enforcement and they'll end up using to invasively investigate comparatively-minor crime; that it will be just another rote daily invasion of personal privacy that we'll be expected to passively-accept by the state; that it would be misused. Tell me you can't see some Republican utopia using this to harass people on social services.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Johnson. We're revoking your disability for depression. Here's surveillance video of you laughing at a cat video. You're clearly not too depressed to work if you can laugh at cat memes."

[RKP5637]

6. The future is grim ... n/t

[cantbeserious]

7. Snowden Was The Tip Of The Spear

eom

[ctsnowman]

8. I thought

we were broke. Can't help old people pay for heat or food but we spend like drunken sailors on the MIC/PIC.

[leftstreet]

17. It'll make it easier to identify frozen seniors this winter

Disgusting

[dotymed]

9. It is totally out of hand...Fascism is here.

When I sign in at my Dr.'s office, they have a cam openly recording each individual at each reception computer....wow.

[dixiegrrrrl]

14. I take it you live in an urban/metro area?

Did you ask them why the cameras?

[JimDandy]

21. The standard reply

I get ftom every doctor's office for capturing my image is to prevent medical insurance fraud--ie to prevent someone using another person's insurance card to get medical services. That explanation never made sense to me though, because all those same doctor's offices required their patients to show govt picture ID along with the insurance card.

[dotymed]

40. Yes.

I moved here from rural Indiana to be close to my family. Tn. is a truly fucked up red state, but it seems that most red states are.
When I was still an active Union carpenter, I was sent to La. after Katrina. I take pain meds for well documented spinal problems.
When I had to get refills on those meds. in N.O., there was one pharmacy that carried them. It was like going into a jail.
Bars on the windows, the only furniture was chairs. Cameras were plentiful.
It took forever to get your refill and then it was scary walking to your vehicle, junkies were everywhere.
Now, in Tn., you have to get a new prescription every month (picked up from Dr.'s office) for anything that has hydrocdone in it.
I am now terminal with heart failure. My meds are considered a "quality of life" issue.
Of course there are no exceptions to this red state law. For the last few months I have had to get my Sister to pick up my prescription because sometimes I feel too bad to drive.
My Father died at my age (53) of heart failure. Surprisingly, both he and I appear healthy. A layman would not suspect any health problems, except I limp because of my orthopedic issues.

[dixiegrrrrl]

44. Down here in a red state, I live in a small town

which has not yet gone to that level of snooping.
Which is one of the reasons I chose to retire her.

Very sorry to hear of your illness..it must be quite depressing at times, and having to wrestle with med.rules does help at all.

[RKP5637]

28. Yep, same here, a camera is focused on you. Even Lowe's has cameras as you check out. As you process

your checkout transaction a camera is recording your every move on the checkout machine.

[reddread]

32. no they probably dont

they are watching their cashiers and registers. those cameras are not intended to watch customers.
considering a camera is in every ATM, this passport concern is sort of after the fact.

[RKP5637]

35. On the machines here at self-checkout at Lowe's there is a camera right on your face and a screen

displaying your facial image about 8" x 12" right in front of your face directly over over the self-checkout machine about 2 feet in front of you. It's very creepy. These are not the typical cameras over the checkout registers with cashiers, but on the self-checkout machines.

[reddread]

38. I see

another issue altogether.
Not much of a Lowe's customer here.
the technology and ridiculously cheap costs of modern cams
means they can do in an unlimited fashion. whatever they like.
I wouldnt fear the incremental encroachment.
I would make the government fear us.
as they should.
we are the boss of them.
lets act like it.

[RKP5637]

39. You make a very good point! Over the years people have let the government rule them

more and more. I've even know people afraid to write their congressmen about issues because they fear they will send someone after them. The government works for us, not us for them. Sadly, many have been bred in this country to think the government should have absolute authority over them, not to question.

I've only see this camera setup at this one Lowe's. It's not even in a high crime area or anything ... maybe they are testing the system or something.

[treestar]

53. Doctors have a big interest in making sure they are treating the right person

There is going to be a lot of identity based security there.

[Enthusiast]

11. Freedumb.

[EEO]

12. The veil of fascism falls off a little more every day.

[awoke_in_2003]

18. “The illusion of freedom...

will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.”

Frank Zappa

[reddread]

47. there are some words that have lost their cache in the USA

sad to know that "freedom" is at the top of the list.

[Dustlawyer]

13. Yet another important issue that we can resolve once we fight for and achieve Publicly Funded

Federal, State, and Local Elections (PFE's)! We need to outlaw campaign contributions and have PFE's in order to take back control of our government. Once we again have Representative Democracy we can get rid of all this crap that the Plutocracy has been up to. We can bust up the Wall Street and media conglomerates.

Bernie Sanders has said that PFE's are his #1 issue so let's get behind him in a really big way. Let him know that this is why he has your support. Big numbers would attract other politicians to this issue!

[dotymed]

42. Bernie is

the only politician that I am aware of who has expressed his/her willingness to run for POTUS and bring common sense back into "our" government.
I sure hope that he is our next POTUS. If elected, his security team will be very busy.
I also hope that a record breaking number of voters, vote.
IMO, he is our last non-violent hope.

[JEB]

16. Big Brother is watching...

[adirondacker]

19. "FaceSpace" The new free social networking site.

Look out Zuckerberg!

[KoKo]

20. For us older who had WWII Parents and Vietnam Vet Friends killed..

this Smacks of ........well....what others have said.

Do the Young Know about Facism? Do they know how the "Good Germans" didn't see it until it was on their doorstep and the smart ones left taking what they could to America to survive.

Does ANYONE REMEMBER? McCarthy Era? The History?

ENDLESS WAR? Taxpayers of USA paying for all this...forced into constant terror even though they were lied to just 12 Years AGO?

Some Poll said 45% of Americans believe Saddam had WMD.

How do we deal with this NOW that American's Believe that IS/ISIL/ISIS is on our doorstep waiting to do more Beheadings and Killing our Children in their beds and Raping our American Women once they cross our borders....while we go through constant screenings on our airlines taking "small quantities of necessities" on flights in plastic bags and giving ourselves to body searches and still the x-ray machines in places who haven't converted.

We are Data Mined and Spyed on by Cameras everywhere. Our Med Records and SS Numbers are out there for any Military Contractor to mine and use for their own purposes...and Yet we live in that Free America that Obama and others tout is the Beacon to the World and responsible for "Keeping the World Free."

Hard Times.....and the lessons of the past are either not taught or no longer recognizable to those behind us.

[RKP5637]

29. Yes, it is a déjà vu and this time around the tools are very sophisticated. Like a cancer it is so

prevalent in our society and growing I wonder if it can be brought under control. Certainly congress has no grasp of what they are doing and are often complicit and complacent. And SCOTUS can not be trusted. I see a very grim future for America.

[dixiegrrrrl]

30. Kids don't get the good stuff in school, I agree, KoKo, esp. now

but I always was a subversive parent and not only taught my kids the good stuff but their lil friends who hung around.

My youngest kid aced a History test in High school ( he was an otherwise lazy student)
"by reading your Doonesbury books, Mom".

"Teach your children well" Indeed.

time to get our hands on the grandkids, wouldn't ya say?

[AZ Progressive]

22. Hah, it is only a matter of time till a "Person of Interest" type of system is fully operational

[Chan790]

34. Samaritan is here.

The only difference is that there is a human mind in the process.

Watch a show like PofI and a show like Legends on TNT; none of what is being done by Maggie (Tina Majorino) on Legends is beyond current capabilities. Add in the wide-scope and after-the-fact approvals granted in this "national security state" by the FISA Court and you basically already have an operational surveillance Panopticon.

The only difference between the use of this system in concert with a human operator performing data-manipulation and Samaritan is the human operator. That's not a flaw of the system, it's an intentional feature...human operator means capability to employ human assets on-ground in real time.

[cali]

23. I'm so glad I live in a place with no surveillance cameras

I hate this shit.

[Chan790]

36. You don't.

I don't even have to know where you live to say that--if it's in North America or Europe, you're on camera anywhere from 3x-15x/hour whenever you leave the house. It's higher than that if you live in a major city. (It's highest if you live in London, UK.) It's non-zero even if you live in Podunkville, population 4. The bank, the grocery, the police station, major intersections, department stores, the hospital, doctor's offices, drug stores, public sidewalks, municipal buildings, gas stations, overpasses, anywhere there is a debit-card reader...and 100s of other places, most of them unavoidable to modern life.

Virtually all of those image captures are surreptitious...more than half the security cameras you see are fake and there only to distract you from the presence of the ones that aren't.

For example, every ATM has a camera in it. (Nowadays, most have two.) Several years ago, criminals started getting smart and finding ways to cover the camera when committing crimes...so banks responded.



I'm not familiar with this bank, I chose this ATM as a generic picture of an ATM. There are two working cameras on that ATM. There is one visible camera behind the dark panel. In all likelihood, that camera is non-functional. There is another camera behind the mirrored panel directly below it and is likely functional. Which is functional-or-not changes and is not even known to the employees of the bank branch. The other functional camera, the one you can't see and will never see unless you're looking for it, is a tiny fiber-optic-lens run to a remote capture device (that is, a camera)--you can't see it in the photo and I have no idea where it is...it's set back inside one of a dozen recessed holes about the diameter of a piece of spaghetti. Because nobody can see it and because banks make dummy holes to make discovery impossible, it's also impossible to even walk near an ATM or drive past one without being image-captured.

[reddread]

46. usually overhead cameras as well

pretty well covered at banks.
the cameras are NOT the problem.
it is the TIA on the other end of all data that is.
one very good reason Obama loses support is everything we
have been able to confirm via Greenwald and Snowden.

[cali]

48. I don't think you understand rural places

I absolute guarantee there are no CCTV cameras on my dirt road in the back of nowhere.

[reddread]

49. and no cam on the old laptop?

no percentage in fearing the cameras you can see.
Unless you dont think someone has access to your laptop.
they do.

[Chan790]

50. I live in the midst of national forestry and wildlife preserve-land on the top of a mountain...

in W. CT in the Lower Berkshires. You can't get more rural than me. It's true here.

But, yes...it's even true in small town America. Perhaps not your dirt road but in the places you patronize with your business. It's everywhere. So unless you're growing all your own food, making your own medicine, never eating out, have the last doctor in America that does house-calls, never use an ATM or a bank, et cetera--you're under more surveillance than you think.

[Recursion]

24. Sounds like pretty much all of Western Europe

In Vienna they even had these "spider-cam" things that crawled along power and phone lines during festivals and would follow particular people (based on who knows what).

[Art_from_Ark]

26. That's creepy

in more ways than one.

[Recursion]

27. Yeah, though they don't have the history of freedom from search and seizure that we do

Then again we also don't have a history of government-provided services like they do...

[dixiegrrrrl]

31. My god, that is straight out of Minority Report.

Phillip Dick wrote that as a short story in 1956!

[JEB]

43. Big Brother, just not this one...

They can try and clamp us down with technology, but the human spirit finds a way.

[warrant46]

51. Just wait until a Fascist Dictator takes over amerika

It's coming

[valerief]

52. Cheek triangle anyone? nt

[Rex]

54. "Citizen step 30 feet away from the police mech, you have been recognized as threat level 3."

"This is your only warning. 10 seconds."