Afghanistan Biometric Data Given To US 108
wisebabo writes "I just noticed that not only are all Afghans going to have their biometric data (fingerprints and iris scans) recorded but the government plans to share it with the U.S. From the article: 'Gathering the data does not stop at Afghanistan's borders, however, since the military shares all of the biometrics it collects with the United States Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security through interconnected databases.' Talk about 'know thine enemy' (or I guess, for now, friend). Does this foretell the near future when the U.S. govt. (and by extension, Chinese hackers) have the biometrics of almost everyone alive?"
I hope so... (Score:5, Insightful)
Does this foretell the near future when the U.S. govt. (and by extension, Chinese hackers) have the biometrics of almost everyone alive?"
I hope so, this would be doubleplusgood. Otherwise, how else can be catch and punish Goldstein?
Re:Missed the juicy part of the article (Score:4, Insightful)
It sounds to me like the system worked - there was a secondary verification of using a photograph, which would have cleared the person who got the false positive.
The problem is that I don't think this reporter of "American Norwegian" descent looked anything even remotely like the match suggested. The real deal is when using it to pick out natives and then having a system which does low odds "best guesses" sounds retarded; especially if it gives you helpful hints to treat people with extreme prejudice.
Ignorance (Score:4, Insightful)
"...Does this foretell the near future when the U.S. govt. (and by extension, Chinese hackers) have the biometrics of almost everyone alive?"
Well, for starters, I find it hilarious that you think this doesn't go on already, sanctioned or not.
And the "by extension" comment regarding hackers? C'mon now, you're talking to Slashdot, not CNN here. Hacking (or cracking) has been and always will be the fallacy of ANY online or offline electronic resource, no matter who owns it or what it contains. That's not exactly "by extension" but more like by inherent design, and it's certainly not limited to "Chinese hackers".
Re:Missed the juicy part of the article (Score:4, Insightful)
The face is just there for secondary verification. In a false fingerprint match, you would expect the fingerprints to be similar, but not the faces.
His point is that a face match is great for secondary verification if the people are of obviously different races or genders, but if an American soldier is comparing a heavily bearded Afghani man to to the picture of a different heavily bearded Afghani man it may not work so well.