Want to read Slashdot from your mobile device? Point it at m.slashdot.org and keep reading!

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×
Government Privacy Crime United States

America's FBI Is Running Facial Recognition Searches On Millions of Driver's License Photos (stripes.com) 177

Posted by EditorDavid from the accustomed-to-your-faces dept.
America's FBI and its Customs Enforcement agency "have turned state driver license databases into a facial-recognition gold mine, scanning through hundreds of millions of Americans' photos without their knowledge or consent," reports the Washington Post.

They cite thousands of newly-released facial-recognition requests, internal documents, and emails from the last five years, revealed after a public-records request from researchers at Georgetown University, saying state Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) databases have been transformed into "the bedrock of an unprecedented surveillance infrastructure."
Police have long had access to fingerprints, DNA and other "biometric data" taken from criminal suspects. But the DMV records contain the photos of the majority of a state's residents, most of whom have never been charged with a crime. Neither Congress nor state legislatures have authorized the development of such a system, and growing numbers of Democratic and Republican lawmakers are criticizing the technology as a dangerous, pervasive and error-prone surveillance tool...

Since 2011, the FBI has logged more than 390,000 facial-recognition searches of federal and local databases, including state DMV databases, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said last month, and the records show that federal investigators have forged daily working relationships with DMV officials... They detailed the regular use of facial recognition to track down suspects in low-level crimes, including cashing a stolen check and petty theft. And searches are often executed with nothing more formal than an email from a federal agent to a local contact, the records show...

The FBI's facial-recognition search has access to local, state and federal databases containing more than 641 million face photos, a GAO director said last month... The search capability was offered not just to help identify criminal suspects, but also to detect possible witnesses, victims, bodies, and innocent bystanders and other people not charged with crimes.
The Post concludes that the newly-released documents "show that the technology already is tightly woven into the fabric of modern law enforcement."

A senior counsel at the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight tells their reporter that "It's really a surveillance-first, ask-permission-later system. People think this is something coming way off in the future, but these (facial-recognition) searches are happening very frequently today."
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.

America's FBI Is Running Facial Recognition Searches On Millions of Driver's License Photos More

America's FBI Is Running Facial Recognition Searches On Millions of Driver's License Photos

Comments Filter:

  • Come on, what did anyone think would happen with drivers license photos? You are submitting them to a government agency, to be shared across the government...

    I am am just as sure the FBI is scanning passport photos too.

    What exactly is the concern here? Once again I lack an understanding of just what I am supposed to be afraid of.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      The fact the photo is taken in the same manner as a mugshot should tip everyone off that it's by design and nothing else.

    • they were submitted to state government only.

      • they were submitted to state government only.

        Thanks to the that thought is exactly wrong. [wikipedia.org]

        Why do you think they wanted ID databases and standards to be similar across states...

        But hell, it was wrong even before that because any airport across America took drivers licenses as ID for a flight... so obviously that data has been shared with federal agencies for verification if nothing else.

        And verification is just what the FBI is doing as well.

        Still missing what I am supposed to be alarmed by.

        • Remember the push back against the Real ID. Years ago. This is why. https://www.tsa.gov/real-id [tsa.gov]

          • That's why in Oregon we don't have it.

            They're bringing out a special edition drivers license/ID that has s Real ID, for people who want it, but the regular ones don't. And likely won't.

            • And thanks to the paranoid or politically correct, anyone who wants to fly out of PDX or EUG will have to have a different ID than everyone in most of the rest of the country. It will cost them more and be less convenient.

              Implementation was delayed once already. PDX has signs telling everyone that if their license doesn't have a star on it (meaning "Real-ID") they will need some other form of government-issued photo id by Sept. 2020.

              • You have that backwards.

                People who want to fly out of PDX or EUG will have to get an ID that is the same as in other States. It is regular people who aren't going to be flying that will have a different ID than most of the rest of the country.

                Anybody who wants an ID that is the same as "most of the rest of the country" will be able to pay a few dollars extra and get the Real-ID star on it. People who don't want that shit, will still have the same ID they always used to have, which will no longer be the same

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by DeVilla ( 4563 )
            It's the sort of government culture that some people hoped Obama would have changed.

      • they were submitted to state government only.

        Lol, who told you that whopper? The same government that took the photos?

        Yeah, once upon a time they might have been "submitted to state government only" but it should be common sense to realize that even if that were true, sooner or later the rest of the government would get their hands on them too. It was inevitable.

        • "rest of the government"

          The federal and state governments are two separate entities, it's wrong to call the federal government "the rest of the government".

          Some states keep the Federal government on short leash to not interfere with their reserves powers, others do not (usually the ones filled with stupid people who want the federal to rule every aspect of peoples' lives and want strong central planning. Sometimes affectionately called "fucking goddamn pinkos"

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Did you attend that protest rally last week? Never mind, we know you did because we ran facial recognition against all of the photos we gathered from the event and your license had a positive match, comrade.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        AKA Hong Kong 2019.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Re: "What exactly is the concern here?"
      In the past all the FBI could look at was the images of set of "criminals".
      Every state had its own drivers photo ID system but that was never to go federal.
      US privacy laws did not want a USA wide "papers please" federal database, a national photo ID card.
      That was the 1970-80's cold war privacy thinking.
      That the USA was different from the Soviet Union and a person could "travel" USA wide without showing photo ID.
      That set the "free" USA apart from the internal pa

    • Come on, what did anyone think would happen with drivers license photos?.

      Right, show of hands, who's surprised this is going on. Anyone? Didn't think so.

    • Come on, what did anyone think would happen with drivers license photos? You are submitting them to a government agency, to be shared across the government...

      I checked the box to destroy my photo as soon as the license was generated and to not share it for any other purposes (and checked the "decline to give SSN" box as well). They "warned" me that I wouldn't be able to automatically get a replacement by mail or use it as ID to fly. Yeah, so what?

      One does not achieve security by identifying real threats

    • "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

    • "I am am just as sure the FBI is scanning passport photos too."

      Sure. Also, all your letters and postcards are photographed, front and back.

    • What exactly is the concern here? Once again I lack an understanding of just what I am supposed to be afraid of.

      Did someone forget to read 1984?

      Sure, it's use is relatively benign... for now.

    • What exactly is the concern here? Once again I lack an understanding of just what I am supposed to be afraid of.

      False positives [arstechnica.com] for one thing.

      The ironic thing here though is that many of the people concerned about this issue are probably also the ones who want to expand the amount of control the government wants over everyone's lives. You think you're going to get "free" (taxpayer funded) health care & education and the government isn't going to be doing more and more tracking of you?

  • please do what you want with my data (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mapkinase ( 958129 ) on Sunday July 07, 2019 @06:00PM (#58887462) Homepage Journal

    If it is limited to using it as stat fodder. Train the shit of your facial recognition, use my Adjusted Gross Income to prove statistically the Panglossian state of American distribution of monetary reward, etc.

    You have my full permission.

    Do not use it to spam me with ads.

    • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by DeVilla ( 4563 )

        In other words, create power and it will attract those who will eventually discover how to abuse it effectively. And they will abuse it.

        Actually, that is my only hang up on government covered health care. It will seem good. Everyone will take it for granted. The obvious, blunt power will then be in controlling when it can be withheld. There will be other more subtle abuses. And it will be abused.

  • I think it is dandy that people who cash a stolen check can be tracked down and jailed. I always have felt that no government could ever live with the truth. Now I am beginning to believe that almost no citizens can live with their real history if it is revealed. Let the light shine in brightly. Let those that have done wrongs sweat in the night knowing that a knock may come at the door.

    • Re:Joy and Wanting More (Score:5, Insightful)

      by waspleg ( 316038 ) on Sunday July 07, 2019 @06:52PM (#58887656) Journal

      You're a fucking idiot if think you this will be used and applied equally in anyway whatsoever across the whole of society. I bet you're guilty of jaywalking, speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, and dozens of other arcane little known laws every day. Wish yourself into the cornfield. I like what I have left of privacy and freedom, thanks.

      • Or. As the Cardinal Richelieu spoke so eloquently:

        Give me six lines written by the most honest man in the world, and I will find enough in them to hang him.

      • By starting your argument with obscenity-laden insults, you're telling readers that you don't have anything more than that. While everything else you said demonstrated that to be the case, in the future you might want to leave that to the end so it comes as a fun surprise.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Trump and the Republican Party have shown that the truth is worthless to them. The Democrats are not far behind.

      A bigger problem is that neither party can recognize the truth because they do not grok math. You saw that in the last tax giveaway when the Rs piously claiming it would pay for itself. Now we have Trillion dollar deficits. In the early 2000s, we had surpluses as far as the eye could see, which turned out to not be very far once the parties saw they could fritter it away on tax giveaways, wars, so

  • The article published by Slashdot is somewhat misleading. The first sentence begins with "America's FBI and its Customs Enforcement agency ..." and incorrectly implies that the "Customs Enforcement agency" is part of the FBI.

    The report [stripes.com] at The Washington Post states that both the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are using photos from the DMV. ICE is not part of the FBI but is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

    That ICE is using photos from the DMV to catch illegal aliens is unders

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      How long before that becomes, "Do not wait until a citizen commits a heinous crime?" Hmmmmmmmm?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      The majority of Americans do not believe in internment camps. And the majority of Americans refuse to recognize that their drug habit is fueling the drug gangs causing the people south of the border to determine their lives are unlivable. The U.S. also refuses to properly provide economic aid for those countries so the people have a livelihood. Instead, we have the orange idiot ranting about his Great White Wall and wanting to piss off over $5 Billion from the military to get some small sections built by hi

      • I'm sorry, why do we have to fix Central America? How exactly are we going to do that? Sending them money hasn't helped. That's why we stopped. Are we supposed to be the ones making sure the citizens of say, El Salvador, "have a livelihood"? No, that's the government of El Salvador. The USA does not rule El Salvador. Nor Guatemala, Honduras or Equador. Those nations have governments of their own. Those governments are responsible for providing for their people, not ours.

        And before you say someth

    • What questionability? No questions - it's all legal and entirely appropriate. One of the reasons these databases have been around since before they could be digitized is to help the cops ID people.

      The funny part is that the organization suing over this, the organization whose purpose is to obstruct and subvert the justice system, the one suing to prevent justice, is called "Migrant Justice".

  • How many people actually look like their DMV picture? Gonna be lots of false negatives and positives from crappy source data. Garbage in, garbage out. But someone has a budget to spend on busywork, I guess.

    • How many people actually look like their DMV picture? Gonna be lots of false negatives and positives from crappy source data. Garbage in, garbage out.

      Getting your DMV pics over the years lets them artificially age you with a higher level of accuracy, and also lets them get good biometric measurements.

  • Not surprising, but worrying (Score:5, Insightful)

    by joe_frisch ( 1366229 ) on Sunday July 07, 2019 @06:22PM (#58887536)

    Not at all surprising that law enforcement agencies (and presumably intelligence services) will want to use all available information to do their jobs.

    What is worrying to me is that so few people seem to realize how dangerous it is to have personally identifiable information that can be connected to almost all of a persons movements, friends, political positions etc all available for scanning and analysis.

    We have created a vast mechanism of tyranny. So far no one has decided to flip the on switch.

    • Re: (Score:1, Troll)

      by drinkypoo ( 153816 )

      We have created a vast mechanism of tyranny. So far no one has decided to flip the on switch.

      It's not a switch. It's more like a dial. The dial is turned to "fuck brown people" so most people haven't noticed that it's not set to "off".

      Even that's a gross oversimplification, to be honest; there's a whole bunch of dials. Really, the system takes advantage of anybody that it can. But let's face it, that's biased against brown people. It's also biased against the poor, women, and a variety of other parties, albeit to differing degrees and sometimes in different ways.

    • so if you commit financial fraud the FBI is going to come looking for you. and these days they have the resources to go after lower level crimes. the horror

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • A mechanism. Not tyranny, but a mechanism that could be used for many purposes of which tyranny is but one.

      That it would take law enforcement minutes instead of months or years to match a photo to a name does not take us any closer to tyranny. It simply makes the job of a cop or a tyrant a little easier, as does any kind of record keeping.

      Record keeping is a mechanism of tyranny. Record keeping is a mechanism of Democracy. Record keeping is a required mechanism for formal governance of any sort.

  • Is there sush thing as a non USA's FBI?

    I also hope Nobody is surprise, they show us this in NCIS and other series and movies.

  • Gee, who didn't see THIS coming (Score:3)

    by p51d007 ( 656414 ) on Sunday July 07, 2019 @06:28PM (#58887552)
    People in America, think we live in a representative republic. Some think we live in a democracy (which we don't). NEITHER are true. To be honest, we live in a SOFT TYRANNY! These constitutionally ILLEGAL alphabet agencies, skirt around the Constitution, because they are "secret" and, part of the deep state!

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gtall ( 79522 )

      Ah, we have a winner!!! A Raging Alt-Right Lunatic. Don't forget the Deep State has matched every American with a unique Deep State employee who watches their every move. I don't think we can ignore the Tri-Lateral Commission either. Hillary runs the show...with help from the Aliens.

      • Ah, we have a winner!!! A Raging Alt-Right Lunatic.

        The people who claim we live in a "soft tyranny" are all pretty much Antifa, so left wing. You really need to understand the spectrum.

  • Fruit of the poisoned vine (Score:5, Interesting)

    by redelm ( 54142 ) on Sunday July 07, 2019 @06:51PM (#58887650) Homepage

    Many states have laws specifically prohibiting (even to LE) access to DMV databases without specific investigative object. These were written after some cops stalked romantic partners. So the TLAs are on very thin ice with their trawling and they know it. High risk of all their evidence being excluded as illegally obtained.

    Their goal is likely something other than arrests, charges and convictions unless they want to do alot of brain-taxing "parallel construction". Harrassment or worse.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )

      High risk of all their evidence being excluded as illegally obtained. Their goal is likely something other than arrests, charges and convictions unless they want to do alot of brain-taxing "parallel construction". Harrassment or worse.

      They don't have to do much of any parallel construction if they can simply feign getting lucky. It's one thing to find a plausible alternative explanation for something you know from an illegal wiretap, but an identification... you find out who it is, then you roll back to see if there's anything (cell phone records, electronic payment records, electronic tickets, license plate readers etc.) that can put you at or near the scene, then you get warrants for those. And then you roll forward saying "We looked t

      • They don't have to do much of any parallel construction if they can simply feign getting lucky. It's one thing to find a plausible alternative explanation for something you know from an illegal wiretap, but an identification... you find out who it is, then you roll back to see if there's anything (cell phone records, electronic payment records, electronic tickets, license plate readers etc.) that can put you at or near the scene, then you get warrants for those. And then you roll forward saying "We looked through the photos of the 200 cell phone users in that cell and had a match" or "Are any of these the man who assaulted you?" and mysteriously the answer is yes.

        That's precisely what parallel construction is. You said they don't need to do it, then gave an example of how it's done.

    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by redelm ( 54142 )

        Generally agreed. The concept of "sovereign immunity" is profoundly un-American where the People are sovereign. Many laws barely pass and might not with immunities included. The impunity of those charged with enforcing laws is galling. And the Blue Silence (omerata?) moreso.

        However, Court is a different place rather more reliant upon logic than "discretion". Why else is adultery a crime in many places yet is almost never charged? So those involved in divorce can plead the 5th rather than answer embarr

  • granted photo ID is going to get detected :)
  • Then what can be found on any goverment issued ID. That information, unless you set privacy settings can easily be harvested. How many people do you think actually set security settings? Shit, you have robbers that use that information to find out where you live, if your away on vacation. What you look like. Thats the modern way of casing a house to rob.

    How about any job you take where you have to have a background check? Is that any different then what they doing with drivers licenses? They now have

    • If, when you post your photos to social media, you have de facto conceded your right to physical privacy, is surrendering to a State-mandated DMV photo the same capitulation of privacy?

      • Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)

        by pgmrdlm ( 1642279 )
        Go play with your Antifa, they will all be in jail soon. And you belong there with them. Did you wear your mothers panties over your face at your last Antifa riot? After they put a journalist, who wasn't even white into the hospitol through their physical attack. They will be on a demostic terrorist list in more then one country. And you bigot, will be there with them. Remember bigot. That ip's can be tracked and your AC post will be unmasked just like you will be at your next terrorist riot you play
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Seriously now, who thought this wasn't already happening or that it wouldn't happen eventually?

    It's far too rich a data source not to mine and anyone that thinks otherwise is just being silly and/or naive.

    I've no doubt that they've been doing this for quite a while, it's only the awareness of it that's just now coming to light.

  • Several years ago I got rid of my American drivers license. Not needed where I live now. So no facial recognition on me yet, dear FBI.
  • zOMG the government that issued me my ID card knows what I look like. Head for the hills?

    Do you know that every time you go to Canada or Mexico or the Caribbean or Europe or wherever, ICE has to look at your face to make sure it matches your passport photo?

    Is tomorrow's breaking news going to be that water is wet?
  • I neither get nor believe it. Those databases are as old as photo IDs, and have been used for the same purposes. They've been digitized for decades, and the only difference now is that getting the results don't take weeks or months or months.

    So what's the problem? That a necessary law enforcement function is faster than it used to be?

  • Which seems to upset "The Center for Migrant Justice", who despite the name seem to be focused on obstructing justice, denying it to every single citizen and legal resident.

Slashdot Top Deals

"What man has done, man can aspire to do." -- Jerry Pournelle, about space flight

Close