IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

A recent report in the Wall Street Journal has noted that the U.S. government has granted a little-known agency entitled the National Counterterrorism Center with sweeping authority to store and monitor massive amounts of data about law-abiding Americans.

The Center serves as the primary organization in the U.S. government for integrating and analyzing all intelligence pertaining to terrorism and serves as the central and shared knowledge bank on terrorism information. The agency provides “all-source” intelligence support to government-wide counter-terrorism activities, and establishes the information technology systems and architectures needed to share information with other government agencies that enable access to, as well as integration, dissemination, and use of, terrorism information.

In the satirical 2006 science fiction film “Idiocracy,” characters in the movie, set in the year 2505, use a tattooed UPC code on their wrist to complete automated teller transactions.

While the goofball cult classic depicted mostly absurd futuristic situations, the movie may have gotten some things right … sort of.

Biometrics — personal authentication techniques that rely on physical characteristics, such as fingerprints or voice recognition — are slowly becoming more popular in the payments industry, meaning that banks will likely be on the front lines of the changes.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has begun to conduct its “1:1 Facial Recognition Air Entry Pilot” program to allow CBP officers (CBPOs) stationed at air ports of entry to use facial recognition technology as a tool to assist them in determining whether an individual presenting themselves with a valid US electronic passport is the same individual photographed in that passport, according to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Privacy Impact Statement (PIA) on the program.

DHS’s Privacy Office is required by law to provide ongoing guidance on all privacy issues raised by significant or novel technologies in which personally identifiable information is required or obtained for purposes of training and testing, such as the Facial Recognition Air Entry Pilot program.

Senators John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Thursday that their Senate framework for immigration reform, recently endorsed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), could require biometric information to check employment status.

Asked whether he favored "a super Social Security card that would have some sort of biometric thing like a fingerprint" by Politico's Mike Allen at a Politico Playbook breakfast on Wednesday, McCain said, "I'm for it."

At a Board of Education meeting, Carroll County Public Schools Superintendent Steve Guthrie said that the decision to stop the scanner implementation within the district came after some parents expressed privacy concerns.

“I made the decision to suspend it after concerns were being expressed by the community,” Guthrie said in the WBAL article. “There was division on those who were for the palm scanner and those who were against it. It is not my intent to alienate any segment of our community. It is my job to unify the community, not to create divisions.

The ANSI/NIST-ITL standard “Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial & Other Biometric Information” has been updated and is called ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011, NIST Special Publication 500-290 Data Format for the Interchange of Fingerprint, Facial & Other Biometric Information.

It’s called the ‘Next Generation Identification System’ (NGIS), and if you’re a fan of television dramas like the CBS crime drama NCIS, it may sound pretty familiar.

DHS has been maintaining fingerprints of every foreigner entering the country in order to prevent fraud, but recent investigations show that there have been a couple of issues surrounding DHS’s records.

The high volume of discrepancies raised eyebrows regarding how many immigrants might be undertaking identity fraud to avoid authorities.

In Carroll County, Md., school students as young as five years old are using their palm prints to pay for lunch.

In the name of efficiency, a student’s print identifies them and records a charge for their meal. Some parents aren’t happy, and are joining a growing debate over the privacy implications and best practices for the use of biometrics.

"(With DBIDS) guards will scan the ID of the accessing individual to check for authorized access," said Staff Sgt. Joshua Allen, 42nd Security Forces Squadron assistant noncommissioned officer in charge of pass and registration and site manager for DBIDS. "They will be able to check new digital entry authorization lists."

Registration should take three to five minutes, he said. "It entails scanning the member's ID card and two sets of fingerprints."

The information-sharing capability, crucial component of the federal government comprehensive strategy to locate and remove convicted criminal aliens, is now linked to all California police agencies with the purpose to identify undocumented and documented aliens, who have been arrested.

The implemented system will alert ICE with biometrics-fingerprints when potentially removable aliens are booked into local jails, so they can have access to all of the state's county prisons to take jurisdiction over immigrants charged with crimes.

Previously, biometrics - fingerprints - taken of individuals charged with a crime and booked into custody were checked for criminal history information against the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). Now, through enhanced information sharing between DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), biometrics submitted through the state to the FBI will be automatically checked against both the FBI criminal history records in IAFIS and the biometrics-based immigration records in DHS’s Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT).

The collection and exchange of biometric data such as fingerprints has been going on for more than a century, but the adoption of digital technology and the increase in the kinds of biometric data being used require standards for implementing these features in applications. The Biometric Conformance Test Software for Data Interchange Formats (BioCTS2012) lets developers, vendors and end users see that the standards have been met, either through in-house testing or through third-party testing laboratories.

The office will use the MORIS identification system that incorporates biometric readings of irises, fingerprints and facial recognition through a mobile device that connects to a smart phone. Deputies will use the system to identify suspects who have no identification and undocumented immigrants.

Customs officers could collect biometrics from foreigners flying out of the country at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints or at kiosks near departure gates. But CBP may not be able to guarantee that those who provided their fingerprints didn't just walk out of the airport.

Under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, DHS was required to create a biometric entry and exit data system to match a physical component – fingerprints, facial image or iris scan – for foreigners who enter the U.S.

That would allow the country to track which visitors leave and which ones overstay their visas.

The number of foreign nationals who have overstayed their visas in the U.S. remains unknown, and Congress is pressuring the Department of Homeland Security for a solution.

Under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, Homeland Security was required to create a biometric entry and exit data system to match a physical component – fingerprints, facial image or iris scan – for foreigners who enter the U.S.