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FBI Spends $1 Billion On Nationwide Facial Recognition
Program
Privacy is dead. The Internet made
sure of that a long time ago. It just takes a little snooping and people will
be able to find all kinds of dirt on you. Even if our online identity is
compromised, we can at least rest easy knowing that our physical appearance is
still unknown to the masses, right?
A report out of NewScientist reveals
that the FBI is now beginning to roll out its $1 billion Next Generation
Identification program. The program includes facial recognition software, iris
scans, DNA analysis and voice identification. There was a report earlier that
said the FBI would also create a tattoo database, but its unclear if that’s
part of the same program. The program is being rolled out now and will be up
across the entire nation by 2014.
The program is obviously drawing
tons of ire from privacy and civil rights proponents, but will the program
actually help catch criminals? The FBI sure seems to think so as the software
uses an algorithm to match faces up with criminal faces that they have on
record. The software is reportedly even capable of picking criminals out of a
crowd.
The cause for concern comes from the
FBI not being exactly open about the new technology. For now, they only have
the faces of criminals in their database. What’s to stop them from collecting
the faces of civilians though? What if the algorithm picks out the wrong person
and the FBI ends up ruining the life of a completely innocent person?
The cause for concern comes from how
algorithms are currently used. Over the past two weeks, YouTube’s algorithm for
catching copyrighted content flagged and took down live streams for the DNC and
the Hugo Awards. Surely the FBI would use a far more sophisticated algorithm,
right?
Either way, your privacy has been
dead for a long time. You already give to Facebook what the FBI wants out of
this new software. All they really have to do is monitor Facebook for
criminals. Most criminals appear to be stupid enough to use social networking
sites while they’re in the act.
This World Hot Topics Blog is Originally from here :
FBI Spends $1 Billion On Nationwide Facial Recognition Program
FBI Spends $1 Billion On Nationwide Facial Recognition Program
