IfG.CC -
Institute for eGovernment

The document is the next step toward updating Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) 201, which was published in February 2005. Among its requirements are that all PIV cards contain an integrated circuit chip for storing electronic information, a personal identification number and protected biometric data—a printed photograph and two electronically stored fingerprints.

Without the biometric standards and technologies in place, Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) said he is concerned about national security.

"I think we've left ourselves at an incredible risk," said Mica, the chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on Government Operations, at a hearing Wednesday. "We don't know who is coming and going."

Now, the New York Times reports, the Department of Homeland Security is developing a surveillance system developed to scan crowds and identify faces. Though the Biometric Optical Surveillance System (with the ominous-sounding acronym BOSS) isn't ready for prime time, it's use isn't too many years away.

Die US-Regierung um Präsident Barack Obama treibt die Umsetzung ihrer Pläne für eine einheitliche Online-ID voran. User aus den Staaten sollen damit eine eindeutige digitale Identität erhalten. Den Bedenken wegen einer womöglich stärkeren staatlichen Kontrolle anhand des Internet-Ausweises erteilt das Weiße Haus eine Abfuhr. Anonymität und Pseudonyme sollen im Web auch weiterhin möglich bleiben.

Now US President Barak Obama wants to increase Internet Security by creating an “identity ecosystem” for the Internet. The US government is stressing this is not a national identity card system, though it would be hard to see how it would not be used as such by law enforcement and banks.

"PatientSecure makes checking in for appointments faster and easier, and enhances patient security by minimizing the margin of error that can exist with completely computerized health records," said Bernard A. Birnbaum, MD, senior vice president and vice dean, chief of hospital operations at NYU Langone Medical Center. "After only nine months, patients and physicians are embracing the system."

County officials want employees to start using the clocks, which will be tied to a computerized payroll system, in the fall. But Patrick Connors, a principal officer with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 401, said the county needs to agree to terms with unions on how the new system will function.

More than 1,340 county employees are represented by unions. The Teamsters represents human-service caseworkers, assistant district attorneys and assistant public defenders.

The information-sharing capability, a key component of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) comprehensive strategy to enhance efforts to identify and remove convicted criminal aliens from the country, uses biometric identification to alert ICE when potentially removable aliens are arrested by local law enforcement.

Secure Communities' information-sharing capability, a key component of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) comprehensive strategy to enhance efforts to identify and remove convicted criminal aliens from the country, uses biometric identification to alert ICE when potentially removable aliens are booked into local law enforcement custody for a crime.

In an attempt to deal with the immigration issue, key senators are considering a bill which would force all workers, citizens and non-citizens alike, to prove their eligibility to work via a national biometric ID card, using fingerprints or other personal markers.

New analysis from the libertarian Cato Institute predicts disastrous consequences if E-Verify, an immigration enforcement program, is mandated for employers nationwide.

E-Verify nationwide could lead to more identity theft, make legal American workers unemployed and prompt the introduction of a nationwide identity card, according to the study.

The study, published Tuesday, was authored by Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at Cato, and Jim Harper, a senior fellow at Cato.

“Right now there’s no way for an individual registration clerk to know that it is you that they’re admitting and that they got the right you,” said Batchelor, who five years ago started a health IT company called LifeMed ID. “There are standards (for patient registration), but there’s no way to audit whether those standards are adopted.”

What is biometrics?

It is the science of identifying individuals by their unique biological characteristics. The best known and earliest example is fingerprints, used by ancient Babylonians as a signature and by police since the turn of the 20th century to identify criminals. But in the last decade there has been a boom in more advanced biometric technology, allowing people to be identified, and sometimes remotely tracked, by their voices, the irises of their eyes, the geometry of their faces, and the way they walk. The FBI is currently consolidating existing fingerprint records, mug shots, and other biometric data on more than 100 million Americans into a single $1.2 billion database. When it is completed, in 2014, police across the country will theoretically be able to instantly check a suspect against that vast and growing array of data. Law-enforcement officials are enthusiastic about this growing power, while civil libertarians are aghast. "A society in which everyone's actions are tracked is not, in principle, free," said William Abernathy and Lee Tien of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "It may be a livable society, but would not be our society."

There’s evidence that fingerprints were used on clay tablets during Babylonian business transactions in 500 BC. Fourteenth century Chinese merchants used children’s palms and footprints to distinguish them. And in early Egyptian history, traders were differentiated by their physical characteristics.

Starting later this year, any U.S. citizen will be able to apply online and visit specified enrollment sites to provide identification and fingerprints for TSA's Pre Check program. The agency did not specify a date for the start of the online applications process, saying only that it would be later this year. It also plans to expand to additional enrollment sites nationwide, although it did not immediately specify those sites.

The hand scanners, installed in Hilltop, Wells and York dining commons last semester, are mandatory for all students with an unlimited meal plan. Within the next few years the university plans to require their use by all students who eat at the dining halls.

Bringing the costs of healthcare down is a topic on everyone’s minds. Technology has gone a long way toward starting the process: electronic medical records that can be shared across physicians’ offices, hospitals, diagnostic and imaging centers, treatment centers, long- and short-term care homes and other facilities will help cut down on administrative costs. Mobile health applications have entered the marketplace as of late, too, promising to make medical administration cheaper with concepts such as self-service, patient self-reporting and medical call centers that can take the pressure off physicians and emergency rooms.

Hockey fans in Washington state should smile for the camera on Saturday night - they're going to be an important part of a new facial recognition trial by the Department of Homeland Security.

The DHS is testing out its Biometric Optical Surveillance System, or BOSS, which aims to pick a terrorist, criminal or other person of interest out of a large crowd within seconds.

An automated fingerprint identification system (AFIS) allows law officers to match palm prints and fingerprints in a database composed of hundredths of thousands of files. Comparing this data enables law enforcement officers to track down and solve critical investigations and crimes.

Technology already used many other counties in West Virginia and the nation is being launched in the coming weeks in Cabell County in an effort to improve the speed and accuracy of the breakfast and lunch lines.

Students in most of the middle and high schools have already had their left and right index fingers scanned in preparation for the launch. But questions have been raised about how parents were notified about what was happening and the technology itself.