I'm all for this system. Why, you ask?

I work at a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, and as I enter and leave I have to key in my Social Security Number to the console. Not to put down my co-workers(and myself, by proxy), but what better place to find desperate criminals wanting to steal your identity than a fast food restaurant?

It's much more difficult to fake fingerprints, even more difficult to fake palm prints, and I'd be very interested in hearing of a successful way to fake retinal scans, short of removing the person's eyeball and carrying it around.

Why is it that they are thinking of awarding a contract this big after the Virtual Case File fiasco, wasting anywhere between $100 - $200 million dollars before the plug was pulled on a project originally budgeted for roughly $400 million?
Yet somehow the NYPD Real-Time Crime Center project was completed for $11 million...

Tax dollars hard at work!

I hope that "we the people" can access our own data. I'd like to find out how my prostrate and colon are doing without having to see a doctor.

Lets think about this for a second.

How much space would you need for that information per person?
Lets assume that every profile would contain 3-5 megabytes of information.
That should ensure an acceptable resolution on portrait, biometric scans as well as an iris scan.
It should also be able to hold large quantities of written text.

That's anywhere between 800 TB and 1,4 PB of information.
that's assuming they want all American citizens on that database

So that's $600 000-$1 000 000 just for the hard drives assuming they want backup and secondary backup systems.
Also assuming a 20% rebate for quantity order

WOW

I just can't help thinking that the hardened criminals must be drooling abundantly at the prospects of getting their mitts on a laptop full of biometric data.
Not to mention the heady feeling of sticking a trojan in the system of an FBI worker, and sending the data from inside.
On a more critical note, to keep a terrorist outside with this database, wouldn't you need to catch him first so as to get his biometric data ?
Or do they expect the terrorists to nicely send in the data themselves in the proper format for import ?

D-Wave Systems is doing this at a level that will allow hand held devices the ability to do facial / retinal recognition without you knowing about this. http://www.dwavesys.com/

Have you already been scanned as a test and you didn't even know it... Be afraid of the men in Black who no longer work for uncle sambo. 

Hotel Tango

is there really any stopping the government? i don't much care for this idea

It is bad enough that most people have enough apathy to stand around and let this kind of thing happen but then there are people like Bryan posting here who think this is a good idea! 

My god people do you all want just want to be forced to conform and have daddy tell you when it is safe and what you can and cannot do? The terrorists have already won if your reaction is to cower in fear and then volunteer to have your government take away your rights so that your goverment starts to look more and more like the oppressive regimes the terrorists have in their own countries of origin to control their citizens. 


For posteriority of course! I'm quite sure that bum bags and fanny packs will be chock full of pony wonga for this special agent's patootie crap.

I think I'll pass on allowing the US government to collect my biometrics. No, in fact, I'm sure I won't allow this.

Honestly, this probably would be a helpful database, the biggest concern, though, would be the security of the information and the strict regulation of whose information is to be stored in this database.

As an FYI, all Federal employees, right down to the janitors, have their fingerprints and DNA on file while they are employed and for 25-30 years after they leave Federal employment, please do some research.

$1 billion to develop a database? Yes, we can clearly see that Congress is the criminal class we should be tracking!

The ACLU has never had Americans interest in mind, they have their own agenda.

Their name could better be described as Americans for Control of Legislature and all Us population.

While they "seem" too be trying to protect privacy, they are tying the FBI's hands behind their back. They already keep criminals fingerprints, dna and other useful information on tracking them, why not put it in a usable form?

yes I think their should be limits on their power, but i also don't think the ACLU has any business making them.