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As Americans pack their bags for holiday travel, a new report is raising key questions about a pilot program that scans the faces of international travelers. The report, from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, criticizes the scope and execution of Homeland Security’s biometric exit pilot program. The program, currently running at nine airports around the country, uses facial recognition technology to identify passengers leaving on international flights. Homeland Security says the program, which it plans to expand, can catch travelers fraudulently using another person’s personal documents. But the report questions whether Homeland Security is vested with the power...

The Central Intelligence Agency apparently didn’t trust its partners in the American intelligence and created a fake software update to steal their data. Part of an internal project called ExpressLane, the bogus update was installed by the CIA Office of Technical Service (OTS) agents purported to be upgrading the biometric collection system.This biometric system was installed at the “liaison services” that included National Security Agency, Department of Homeland Security, and the Federal Bureau of Intelligence. The agency reportedly installed these at partner offices around the world to gain biometric data that was collected by the other agencies. The scathing revelation...

It was a memorable moment in Pixar’s 2004 classic “The Incredibles,” one that seemed wildly futuristic at the time: Mr. Incredible picks up a wafer-thin tablet computer, and it scans his face to verify his identity before divulging his secret mission. Thirteen years later, many slim phones and tablets unlock with the press of a thumb—and just this sort of mobile facial scanning is on the way. Forget fiddling with passwords or even fingerprints; forget multiple layers of sign-in; forget credit cards and, eventually, even physical keys to our homes and cars. A handful of laptops and mobile devices can...

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A police force has defended scanning the faces of 90,000 festival-goers this weekend and checking them against a list of wanted criminals across Europe. Leicestershire Police, which used facial recognition technology on revellers at Download, said it had now destroyed the information it gathered. It was believed to be the first time the software had been used at an outdoor event in the UK... ...A cashless payment system was put in place for the first time in a bid to cut crime. Thousands of revellers braved the rain at Download, held at Donington Park, to see headliners Slipknot, Muse and...

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Cellphones didn’t just arrive in Pakistan. But someone could be fooled into thinking otherwise, considering the tens of millions of Pakistanis pouring into mobile phone stores these days. In one of the world’s largest — and fastest — efforts to collect biometric information, Pakistan has ordered cellphone users to verify their identities through fingerprints for a national database being compiled to curb terrorism. If they don’t, their service will be shut off, an unthinkable option for many after a dozen years of explosive growth in cellphone usage here. Prompted by concerns about a proliferation of illegal and...

US citizens and other non-EU nationals who enter Europe will be asked to have their faces image-captured and fingerprints scanned upon arrival at a half-dozen major airports. The biometric dragnet is part of a pilot test of the EU’s so-called “smart borders” package. Passengers can refuse to give the data for now, but there are plans to eventually make it obligatory.A draft internal EU document dated Wednesday (18 February) and seen by this website says the “proof of concept” is set to start in March and will run until September this year. “Should traveler participation be lower than expected, there...

..........Could this wristband sensor one day be moved to inside the wrist, or somewhere in the hand? It may sound rather far-fetched, but it’s already happening. According to the local.se, Emilott Lantz, 25, from Umeå in northern Sweden, got a microchip inserted into her hand early November. She became a guinea pig during Sime 2014 in Stockholm – a conference about digitalism, the internet, and the future. In line with the goals of the event, participants were offered to get a microchip fitted for free – an opportunity Lantz jumped at. “I don’t feel as though this is the future...

Federal officials are challenging new benefit rules at Honeywell Inc. that create monetary penalties unless employees and spouses take medical tests. A lawsuit filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in response to complaints from two Minnesota employees sets up a potential court case over how far employers can go to shift health costs and influence worker behavior. The agency said in the suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, that new health screening and penalties at Honeywell violate the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. “Employees will be penalized if they or their...

The FBI is preparing to accelerate the collection of DNA profiles for the government's massive new biometric identification database. Developers of portable DNA analysis machines have been invited to a Nov. 13 presentation to learn about the bureau's vision for incorporating their technology into the FBI's new database. So-called rapid DNA systems can draw up a profile in about 90 minutes. The Next Generation Identification system, or NGI, the successor to the FBI's criminal fingerprint database, is designed to quickly ID crooks through facial recognition, iris matching, tattoo cross-checks and vocal recordings, among other unique traits. But critics say aggregating...

What if you were forced to “register” in order to buy groceries? And what if, through that registration, the food you bought could be tracked and quantities could be limited? That’s exactly the plan in Venezuela right now. The AP reports that in an effort to crack down on “hoarding” that ID cards will be issued to families. These will have to be presented before foodstuffs can be purchased.

Will TSA agents be replaced by machines? One of the main reasons that Americans hate to fly is the Transporation Security Administration (TSA). Not only is it annoying to have to strip down at security checkpoints, submit to the occasional patdown and stand in long lines to verify our identities, but the entire system is inefficient. So what happens if we take humans off of those jobs and use machines instead? Several European airports are looking to answer that question by installing eye and face scanners, along with fingerprint readers, at security checkpoints. Many airports’ immigration checks have used these...

It took only days for the hackers of Germany’s Chaos Computer Club to claim victory in the challenge to break Apple’s vaunted new security feature in the iPhone 5s. The CCC “biometrics hacking team” used a photo of a fingerprint from a glass surface to fashion a fake finger that they then used to fool the newest iPhone into unlocking. “This demonstrates—again,” the group said in a statement, “that fingerprint biometrics is unsuitable as access control method and should be avoided.” Actually, it demonstrates no such thing. The new iPhone debuted on Friday, September 20. The CCC team announced their...

But the most significant news to come out of the event is a new security feature on the iPhone 5S called Touch ID, which is an app that allows users to use their fingerprint to access information in their phone. The new function is essentially a fingerprint identity sensor in the home button on the phone that enables users to unlock their device. However, it can also be used as a substitute for passwords when making purchases, including in Apple's iTunes Store. "Your fingerprint is one of the best passwords in the world. It's always with you," said Dan Riccio,...

The Interior Ministry has announced that Israel’s biometric database program will officially begin in two weeks. That’s when the government will start building a biometric database of all Israeli citizens by upgrading the folded blue plastic ID cards (“teudat zehut”) and other non-citizen Ids with fingerprints and facial recognition data. Not everyone is happy about this plan. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) expressed outrage in a statement by spokesman Marc Grey, who warned, “The police could use this information in all kinds of ways to avoid their constitutional responsibilities of due process – and then you have...

Biometric Database tucked inside Gang of Eight immigration bill by Conservative Action Alerts on May 31, 2013 ALERT: The Gang of Eight’s comprehensive immigration plan will destroy individual privacy via biometric database. American Conservative, Last Tuesday, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed their markup of the Gang of Eight’s “immigration reform” bill – a version that not only preserves most of the bill’s original problems, but also contains 233 additional pages of rules. Senator Ted Cruz says that the bill only makes our current immigration problems “worse.” Sadly, he holds the minority opinion as he was one of only five Senate...

The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission has cracked down on drivers smiling in their driver’s license photos because their smiles could interfere with new facial recognition software. New Jersey resident Velvet McNeil told the Philadelphia Inquirer Thursday that when she went to get her license at her local New Jersey motor vehicle center, she was told she could not smile for her photo. Shocked, McNeil said she walked out of the center. …

Biometrics at border crossings huge hurdle for CIA spies By Defense Systems Staff | Apr 12, 2012 The use of iris scanners and biometric passports at airports, hotels and business headquarters around the globe is making it difficult for CIA spies and secret agents in other nations to travel under false identities, reports Jeff Stein at Wired's Danger Room blog. Throughout Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia, governments are using iris scanners at entry points to link travelers' eyeballs to a particular name, the blog says. At the same time, biometric passports, which are embedded with microchips...

U.S. officials said Thursday evening they have "specific, credible but unconfirmed" information about a threat against the United States coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks. "We have received credible information very recently about a possible plot directed at the homeland that seems to be focused on New York and Washington, D.C.," a senior administration official told CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr. The official said the plot was believed to involve three individuals, including a U.S. citizen, who may have entered the United States. U.S. officials believed the threat was a vehicle laden with explosives, but...

click on the church channel for schedule. this week presents part 3 of a discussion with mark lerner of the constitutional alliance about real i.d. and biometrics. both agree that the u.s. congress will cancel real i.d. because some states have passed laws against it. a new law of biometrics on drivers licenses will be passed that conforms to international standards. all four parts are available as "could us escape 666?" on a dvd.