• ICE says it will automatically vet juvenile immigrants fingerprints

    In a blow to San Francisco’s sanctuary law, the fingerprints of juvenile immigrants charged with serious offenses will also be automatically forwarded to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

  • Australia's Biometrics Institute launches privacy awareness checklist

    Australia’s Biometric Institute will release its Biometrics Institute Privacy Awareness Checklist (PAC) to its member organizations to promote good privacy practices; the Biometrics Institute Privacy Code already is at a higher level than the Australian Privacy Act 1988

  • More counties join Secure Communities

    Across the United States, 135 jurisdictions in 17 states have joined DHS’s (and DOJ’s) Secure Communities project; Secure Communities offers local jurisdiction an information-sharing capability: if an individual is arrested, his or her fingerprint information will now be simultaneously checked against both FBI criminal history records and the biometrics-based immigration records maintained by DHS, meaning that both criminal and immigration records of all local arrestees will be checked

  • A new U.S. biometrics agency created to manage DoD-wide responsibilities

    The role of biometric information in U.S. national security is increasing, and the U.S. government creates the Biometrics Identity Management Agency (BIMA); BIMA, a component of the U.S. Army, will lead Department of Defense activities “to prioritize, integrate, and synchronize biometrics technologies and capabilities and to manage the Department of Defense’s authoritative biometrics database to support the National Security Strategy”; DoD says: “Biometrics is an important enabler that shall be fully integrated into the conduct of DoD activities to support the full range of military operations”

  • Florida's new fingerprint technology helps law enforcement

    Florida Department of Law Enforcement arrests 3,000 people every day; checking their fingerprints against Florida’s bank of 16.5 million prints on file was becoming a problem; a new FALCON fingerprinting system, installed at a cost of $7.4 million and in use since last June, has solved these problems

  • Update: The FBI caps nearly 90 years of use of biometrics with its Biometric Center of Excellence

    The FBI has been using various forms of biometric identification since its earliest days — from photographs and fingerprints in its first years (and assuming responsibility for managing the U.S. fingerprint collection in 1924), to applying handwriting analysis in the Lindbergh kidnapping case in 1932, to its laboratory’s pioneering work on raising latent finger, palm, and other soft tissue prints from evidence, to today’s development of DNA analysis as a means of genetic fingerprinting

    • view counter

  • Proposed bill calls for ID card for U.S. workers to curb illegal immigration

    Advocates of immigration reform are pushing for a bill in the Senate which would create a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain; the biometric data would likely be either fingerprints or a scan of the veins in the top of the hand; employers will not be able to hire applicants who do not present a valid ID

  • Canada to use DHS's Secure Flight rules

    Starting in December, passengers on Canadian airlines flying to, from, or even over the United States without ever landing there, will only be allowed to board the aircraft once the U.S. DHS has determined they are not terrorists

  • U.S. buys iris scanners for prisons to prevent mistaken release of inmates

    The U.S. government has allocated funds for prisons to purchase iris recognition scanning machines; the purpose is create fool-proof system which would prevent inmates from impersonating other inmates to gain early release

  • New Hampshire considering banning biometrics in ID cards

    The New Hampshire legislature is considering a bill which would ban biometric data, including fingerprints, retinal scans, DNA, palm prints, facial feature patterns, handwritten signature characteristics, voice data, iris recognition, keystroke dynamics, and hand characteristics from being used in state or privately issued ID cards, except for employee ID cards

  • Sorting the bad guys from the good

    Israel’s WeCu claims a 95 percent success rate for its new terrorist detection system that monitors reactions to visual stimuli at airports and checkpoints; the company’s device flashes stimuli, such as photos, a symbol, or a code word, relating to the information authorities are most interested in (whether it is terrorism, drug smuggling, or other crimes), to passengers as they pass through terminal checkpoints; hidden biometric sensors then detect the subjects’ physical reactions and subtle behavioral changes remotely or during random contact

  • IBM filed patents for airport security profiling technology

    IBM has filed a dozen patent applications which define a sophisticated scheme for airport terminal and perimeter protection, incorporating potential support for computer implementation of passenger behavioral profiling to detect security threats

  • Japanese biometric border fooled by tape

    Two South Korean women have managed to fool Japan’s expensive biometric border-control system by using special tapes on their fingers; the invisible tape carries the finger prints of another person, and the South Korean broker who supplied the tape also provided false passports to go with it; this is the third known case of South Korean women using the fingerprint-altering tape to enter Japan; in all three cases, the women managed to fool the biometric screening, but were later caught because they over-stayed their visas

  • U.K. home secretary reveals ID register linked to NI numbers

    The U.K. National Identity Register contains National Insurance numbers and answers to “shared secrets”; the secretary claimed the NI numbers have been included to “aid identity verification checks for identity cards and, in time, passports”

  • Israel tests biometric database

    Israel will start a 2-year biometric database pilot; citizens applying for various identification documents will, on a voluntary basis, have their fingerprints taken along with a picture of their face; after two years the government will decide whether to make the biometric information collection mandatory