Federal fingerprint registry and database in proposed housing bill

The Voice of Freedom ^ | May 23rd, 2008

[Raineygoodyear]

WASHINGTON - May 23, 2008 - Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate. Recently, “Server in the Sky” - a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., UK and Canada - has ignited a firestorm of controversy, as have cavalier comments made by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren’t “personal data.”

Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries - and not suspected of anything - to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.

The measure the committee passed states that “an individual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.” To obtain this “identifier,” an individual is required to “furnish” to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry “information concerning the applicant’s identity, including fingerprints for submission” to the FBI and other government agencies

[StoneWall Brigade]

“They who would give up essential liberty for temporary security deserve neither liberty or security” - Benjamin Franklin

[dcwusmc]

Imagine that. What’s next? Never mind, we already know. The FedGoons are NEVER satisfied. It’s more, more, more. Until we, the People, have nothing left.

[chaos_5]

I don't see how having your finger prints on file is giving up liberty. I think they should put everyones prints on file, but WTF is this doing in a housing bill !?!?

[SpaceBar]

Allow a flood of extranational interlopers and people of questionable allegiance to infiltrate society over many decades, then introduce “a solution” straight out of a futuristic sci-fi police state novel. Yea, that’s the ticket.

[StoneWall Brigade]

It’s never ending.

[mysterio]

I think they should put everyones prints on file

I don't. I don't see that anywhere in the list of powers given to the fedgov.

[StoneWall Brigade]

I don't trust the feds with that kind power.

[Rightone]

This is insane. We are supposed to be a country where individual rights are sacred and protected. We all have should have a right to privacy.

Supposed to be... oh, never mind.

[ikka]

I don't see how having your finger prints on file is giving up liberty.

I don't see how letting the gov't put a GPS tracking device in your car is giving up liberty.

[LucyT]

Oh, yeah, this will work just fine. /s

My fingerprints don’t match the ones the feds have on file. Luckily my real fingerprints were on file at the sheriff’s office back when I applied for a CC permit.

[chaos_5]

It's not like a finger print is a secret window in to your daily activities. I favor this idea because it may could reduce crime and help LOE’s do their job. as an added benefit, it would be much harder to steel your identity because forging a fingerprint is pretty much impossible.

[chaos_5]

ikka, I think you are being silly. A GPS tracks activity, a fingerprint is just information like a date of birth, your name, your eye color etc. It's not like it tells them what you are doing, or who you are doing it with.

There is a huge differance between GPS and a finger print.

[Smokin' Joe]

I don't see how letting the gov't put a GPS tracking device in your car is giving up liberty.

Nor mandating the digital cell phone with one?

That was one of the alleged 'selling points' of having the digital phone. I told my cellular provider that not only did I know where I was, but that it did not do me any good if I couldn't get a signal, anyway (remote and rural areas).

I have since noticed that it gets signal bars even for towers I cannot call out on. Imagine that. Now when I can't use it, the battery comes out.

[Squeako]

And here I was wondering how Chertoff got to the top of my “Most Incompetent Bureaucrats” list.

[Squeako]

There is a huge differance between GPS and a finger print.

You funny.

[Smokin' Joe]

And here I was wondering how Chertoff got to the top of my “Most Incompetent Bureaucrats” list.

I don't think this is so much incompetence as it is the camel's nose a little further under the tent.

[Squeako]

I don't think this is so much incompetence as it is the camel's nose a little further under the tent.

You're right. I was just being kind. :)

[mouser]

It's not like a finger print is a secret window in to your daily activities. I favor this idea because it may could reduce crime and help LOE’s do their job

It's not like DNA is a secret window in to your daily activities. I favor this idea because it may could reduce crime and help LOE’s do their job

Coming soon

[dcwusmc]

Which police agency do you work for?

There is NO POSSIBLE WAY that this can legitimately pass Constitutional muster... except that our Courts are beneficiaries of the current looting system... but there is NO WAY anyone who is not already in the database SHOULD be there, absent conviction for a crime. You are looney-tunes if you think this is a good thing.