Worker ID Card at Center of Immigration Plan: Via Wall Street Journal.

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants: a national biometric identification card all American workers would eventually be required to obtain.

Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants, would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.

The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar bills in the past.

The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their work. An administration official said the White House had no position on the biometric card. [ Read more ... ]

"Your Papers, Please!" - Get Your Fingerprints Ready! Cross-Party Senate Alliance Pushing National ID Card: Via Lauren Weinstein's Blog.

Greetings. According to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. Senate immigration reform advocates Chuck Schumer and Lindsey Graham are proposing a mandatory biometric (e.g. fingerprint-based) National ID Card system, and are attempting to brush away privacy concerns as trivial and irrelevant.

Touted as "merely" a "right-to-work" card aimed at addressing illegal immigration concerns, there's simply no fast-talking around the fact that this plan will set in motion a massive national ID infrastructure that will ultimately penetrate every aspect of our lives. Anyone who suggests otherwise is -- sorry to say -- either a liar or a fool. [ Read more ... ]

Seven "Corporations of Interest" in Selling Surveillance Tools to China: Via EFF.org Updates.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's announcement of a new U.S. policy on global Internet Freedom included a bold new statement about the responsibilities of American technology companies:

...We are urging U.S. media companies to take a proactive role in challenging foreign governments' demands for censorship and surveillance. The private sector has a shared responsibility to help safeguard free expression. And when their business dealings threaten to undermine this freedom, they need to consider what’s right, not simply what’s a quick profit.

We couldn't agree more. [ Read more ... ]

Science Friday: Facial Recognition: Via NPR's Science Friday.

Photo management programs such as Picasa and iPhoto can pick out a snapshot of your cousin Dave from a stack of party pictures -- but what about more complex uses of facial recognition in less controlled situations? In this segment, we'll take a look at the state of the art in facial recognition, from 'Google Goggles' that give you additional information about things your cell phone camera sees, to security applications that scan faces at airports. How good is the technology, and how can it be employed while respecting privacy concerns? [ Read more ... ]

Navy Wants Troops Wearing Brain-Scanners Into War: Via Danger Room.

The Pentagon’s been pushing for better ways to diagnose, treat and prevent wartime brain injuries. Last year, they requested proposals for pharmacological methods to stave off PTSD. New genetic tests and brain scans, meant to identify war-fighters who are “vulnerable” to stress reactions, are ongoing. Now, the Navy’s looking to speed up the diagnosis of brain trauma, with a portable, weather-proof, multipurpose brain scanner.

The Navy’s Bureau of Medicine and Surgery is requesting proposals for a brain-scanning system that can assess a myriad of neuro-cognitive abilities, including reaction times, problem solving and memory recall. [ Read more ... ]

REAL ID is Punted Again: Via CDT - Center for Democracy & Technology..

DHS pushed back the December 31 deadline for REAL ID compliance until May 11, 2011  providing (at least in theory) the 46 states that have not yet improved driver's license standard more time to do so.  WIth PASS ID — the bill that would make REAL ID easier to comply with and add privacy protections — still not through the Senate, it is not terribly surprising that REAL ID is once again delayed.  CDT still worries that the climate will be different at the next deadline and the compromise that forces the hand of the states to act will not be nearly as privacy-friendly as PASS ID.

Read Original Article:(Via CDT - Center for Democracy & Technology..)

Move to National ID Cards Delayed: Via Threat Level.

The United States’ quest for a national identification database associated with driver’s licenses won’t be finished by year’s end.

The deadline was Dec. 31 for the states to have created what would be the largest identification database of its kind under the auspices of the Real ID program. The law also mandates uniform anti-counterfeiting standards for state driver’s licenses.

None of the states are in full compliance with the law, first adopted in 2005, requiring the states’ motor vehicle bureaus to obtain and internally scan and store personal information like Social Security cards and birth certificates for a national database, according to the American Civil Liberties Union. About half the states oppose the mandate, or have said they would never comply.

Beginning Jan.1, the law was supposed to have blocked anybody from boarding a plane using their driver’s license as ID if their resident state did not comport with the Real ID program. But the Department of Homeland Security is set to extend, for at least a year, the deadline of the Real ID program that has raised the ire of privacy advocates. [ Read more ... ]

Real ID Follies Continue with PASS ID Waiting in the Wings: Via EFF.org Updates.

As 2009 draws to a close, we're inching ever deeper into the corner that Congress painted us into by passing Real ID under the table in 2005. (Recall that Real ID is the failed, Bush-era attempt to turn state drivers licenses into national ID cards by forcing states to collect and store licensee data in databases, and refusing to accept non-compliant IDs for federal purposes, like boarding a plane or entering a federal building.)

The official deadline for states to comply with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) final Real ID rule is December 31, 2009, and an estimated 36 states will not be in compliance by then, leading to some ambiguity for many citizens. For example, will residents of Montana be able to board planes in January 2010 with only a driver’s license (a state-supplied, technically non-compliant document) and without a passport (an identity document issued by the federal government)?

Past history strongly suggests that DHS will issue last-minute waivers to states that have not amped up their drivers licenses to adhere to Real ID. [ Read more ... ]

Dead Man Gets Passport - The Top 10 Stories You Missed in 2009 : Via Foreign Policy.

Since 2007, the U.S. State Department has been issuing high-tech "e-passports," which contain computer chips carrying biometric data to prevent forgery. Unfortunately, according to a March report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), getting one of these supersecure passports under false pretenses isn't particularly difficult for anyone with even basic forgery skills.

A GAO investigator managed to obtain four genuine U.S. passports using fake names and fraudulent documents. [ Read more ... ]

Coke Tries Facial-Recognition on Facebook: Via Digits - The Wall Street Journal / WSJ .

Coca-Cola wants you to know that Coke Zero is a lot like Coca-Cola Classic. It believes this so strongly that it’s willing to do something unusual to drive the point home, like introducing you to your own doppelganger.

Enter the Facial Profiler. The Profiler is a new Facebook application that lets members upload photos of themselves and match them with a similar-looking Facial Profiler user. The idea is that you can find your mirror image, just the way Coke has found its reflection in Coke Zero.

The app, which launches today, has been soliciting submissions to build a database with enough photos to reach critical mass. [ Read more ... ]

FBI delves into DMV photos in search for fugitives: Via The Associated Press on Google.

RALEIGH, N.C. — In its search for fugitives, the FBI has begun using facial-recognition technology on millions of motorists, comparing driver's license photos with pictures of convicts in a high-tech analysis of chin widths and nose sizes.

The project in North Carolina has already helped nab at least one suspect. Agents are eager to look for more criminals and possibly to expand the effort nationwide. But privacy advocates worry that the method allows authorities to track people who have done nothing wrong.

"Everybody's participating, essentially, in a virtual lineup by getting a driver's license," said Christopher Calabrese, an attorney who focuses on privacy issues at the American Civil Liberties Union. [ Read more ... ]

Will airports screen for body signals? Researchers hope so: Via CNN.

The Homeland Security-funded project is Future Attribute Screening Technology, or FAST. Instead of focusing on whether you have hidden explosives or whether you're carrying a weapon, sensors and cameras located at security checkpoints would measure the natural signals coming from your body -- your heart rate, breathing, eye movement, body temperature and fidgeting.

Those physiological signs, measured together, will indicate whether you might have the desire or intent to do harm, project manager Robert Burns said.

"There's been a large field of research that ties your physical reactions to your mental state, your emotional state. We're looking for those signals that your body gives off naturally," Burns said.

Burns said the technology will pick up cues that may not be observed by a human and help security personnel decide more quickly whether to send someone to secondary screening for questioning. [ Read more ... ]

Digital Signage Offline Behavioral Advertising Privacy: Via Business 2.0 Press.

The digital signage industry is rapidly becoming aware of the privacy issues raised by interactivity and audience measurement techniques. There is, however, no industry-wide consensus about how to address those concerns. Some industry figures agree that privacy guidelines need to be adopted if audience measurement and other digital signage applications are to progress. Others, though, have referred to calls for the industry to be sensitive to privacy as “attacks” and have condemned privacy concerns as a lot of hype over nothing. The privacy issue is real, particularly if one considers the big picture of where digital out-of-home (DOOH) media is headed.

Internet marketers use various tools to profile consumers and deliver targeted advertisements to them as they browse the Web. Digital signage has begun integrating tools that can track and profile consumers as well, but the difference is that the targeted advertisements appear in the offline world. [ Read more ... ]

Big Brother is watching you shop: Via BBC NEWS | Technology.

A surveillance state, with cameras on every street is commonplace but now Big Business is also turning to Big Brother.

Face recognition, behaviour analysing surveillance cameras, biometric profiling and the monitoring and storing of our shopping patterns has made snooping into our habits, movements and private lives ever easier. [ Read more ... ]

Google Releases Picasa 3.5 -- InformationWeek: Via InformationWeek.

The latest version of Google's Picasa software features facial recognition technology and several other improvements.

Google on Tuesday plans to release Picasa 3.5, an update of its free photo editing and organization software for Mac and Windows computers.

Picasa 3.5 has inherited the name tags feature found in Google's online version of Picasa, Picasa Web Albums. Using facial recognition technology, the software will try to group similar faces in a set of photos. Though different people may end up in the same group if they resemble one another, name tags nonetheless provide a useful way to label large groups of photos quickly. [ Read more ... ]

School’s fingerprint system may breach laws: Via Irish Examiner.

A CO Limerick secondary school may be forced to drop a hi-tech fingerprint student monitoring system for breaching data protection legislation.

All 420 students at the mixed Salesian College in Pallaskenry have been fingerprinted for the new biometric system used for daily enrolment.

A fingerprint from each hand is registered on two scanners when students arrive in the morning and return after lunch. [ Read more ... ]

Digital Signage and Consumer Privacy: Via CDT - PolicyBeta.

The digital signage industry is rapidly becoming aware of the privacy issues raised by interactivity and audience measurement techniques. There is, however, no industry-wide consensus about how to address those concerns. Some industry figures agree that privacy guidelines need to be adopted if audience measurement and other digital signage applications are to progress. Others, though, have referred to calls for the industry to be sensitive to privacy as “attacks” and have condemned privacy concerns as a lot of hype over nothing.

(What is digital signage? Please see my earlier post, Digital Wallpaper.)

It is true that no one should blow the privacy issue out of proportion. The industry’s present level of privacy infringement is not especially high because only a small percentage of digital signage units have audience measurement, identification or interactive capabilities. Nonetheless, the privacy issue is real, particularly if one considers the big picture of where digital out-of-home (DOOH) media is headed. [ Read more ... ]

Crime expert backs calls for 'licence to compute' - : Via Security - Technology - News - iTnews.com.au .

But education should take back seat to product safety.

Australia's leading criminologist thinks online scams have escalated to such a point that first-time users of computers should have to earn a licence to surf the web.

Russel Smith, principal criminologist at the Australian Institute of Criminology said the concept of a "computer drivers licence" should be taken seriously as an option for combating internet-related crime.

"There's been some discussion in Europe about the use of what's called a computer drivers licence -  where you have a standard set of skills people should learn before they start using computers," Dr Smith told iTnews. [ Read more ... ]

PASS ID: REAL ID Reanimated: Via EFF.org Updates.

In February, the opponents of REAL ID were given a bit of hope when Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that she wanted to repeal the REAL ID Act, the federal government's failed plan to impose a national identification card through state driver's licenses. But what has taken place since is no return to sanity, as political machinations have produced a cosmetic makeover called "PASS ID" that has revived the push for a national identification card.

The PASS ID Act (S. 1261) seeks to make many of the same ineffectual, dangerous changes the REAL ID Act attempted to impose. Fundamentally, PASS ID operates on the same flawed premise of REAL ID -- that requiring various "identity documents" (and storing that information in databases for later access) will magically make state drivers' licenses more legitimate, which will in turn improve national security. [ Read more ... ]

Defunct Airport Fast-Pass Company Banned From Selling Customer Biometrics: Via Epicenter | Wired.com .

Clear, the now-defunct airport security fast-pass company, was ordered Tuesday by a federal court judge not to sell the biometric data it collected from hundreds of thousands of customers. They had each paid $200 a year for membership in a program to speed them through airport screening lines.

Clear, founded by journalist-cum-entrepreneur Steven Brill, abruptly shut down on June 22, citing cash flow problems. It is now facing multiple lawsuits from angry customers who want refunds and want to force the company to destroy sensitive biometric data such as iris and fingerprints. That information was used to grant access to the company’s dedicated screening lanes at domestic airports.

Clear told customers on its website that it was looking to sell the data to another company that would take up its business model. [ Read more ... ]

Concerns Surface About Some PASS ID Amendments: Via CDT - PolicyBeta.

Last Wednesday, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee agreed on several amendments to the PASS ID bill [S. 1261] and sent the legislation on to the Senate.

Let’s take a look at some of the changes:

• Exceptions to the anti-skimming provision:

A key privacy protection we support in PASS ID restricts the collection and use of information scanned from the machine-readable zone on your driver’s license or ID card. However, in response to the concerns of retailers and other third party users of driver’s license information, the committee introduced an amendment that directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to issue regulations establishing exceptions to this anti-skimming provision. [ Read more ... ]

Thinking Twice: The Catch of the Biometric Bargaining Chip: Via Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Reform is in the air, and immigration reform will likely follow health care reform on the Congressional to-do list. While this could be great news, it seems like we will be asked to swallow just about anything, including mandatory electronic employment verification and increased local enforcement of federal immigration law, even if it results in racial profiling, in order to get legalization of the 12-14 million undocumented people currently in the country. And, one of the scariest proposals that is being seriously discussed inside the Beltway is a biometric worker identification card (PDF).

This is Sen. Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) baby, and on Tuesday, July 21, he held a hearing about the proposal. Now, biometrics are all kinds of scary for substantive reasons, but there’s at least one reason Sen. Schumer’s proposal should be terrifying even to those who really want legalization. [ Read more ... ]

Congressmen: Pass ID Threatens Americans: Via Blog of Rights: Official Blog of the American Civil Liberties Union.

It’s not every day that privacy advocates agree with this particular group of four congressmen. But in Tuesday’s Washington Post, Congressmen Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Lamar Smith (R-Texas), Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wisc.) and Peter King (R-N.Y.) spoke out against PASS ID as a threat to our national security. We concur: PASS ID does present unnecessary risk, all while doing nothing to aid national security.

Unfortunately, once you get past the headline, our agreement pretty much ends. The four congressmen are actually supporters of the failed Real ID Act — Rep. Sensenbrenner is the act’s author. They oppose PASS ID because they feel it weakens some of Real ID’s more draconian requirements.But the PASS ID Act is no benign alternative. It exposes Americans to an increased risk of identity theft, endangers victims of domestic violence, and cuts off religious minorities and some legal immigrants from full participation in society. [ Read more ... ]

More on PASS ID: Strengthening Privacy Protections for REAL Progress: Via CDT - PolicyBeta.

Three weeks ago, the PASS ID Act [S. 1261] was introduced in an effort to move beyond the REAL ID stalemate that has dragged on for over three years. CDT supports PASS ID because it mitigates key privacy flaws in the REAL ID program and is a notable improvement over current law. While the privacy provisions in PASS ID can still be strengthened, the bill incorporates nearly all the privacy requirements that the last Congress’s REAL ID repeal act included [S. 717, 110th] and was even introduced by the same Senator, Daniel Akaka (D-HI).

Putting aside for a moment the question of whether repeal of REAL ID is a political possibility, it is important to realize that repeal is not necessarily better than REAL ID: [ Read more ... ]

Legal Analysis of Religious Exemptions for Photo Identification Requirements: Via Congressional Research Reports.

The 111th Congress has considered the issue of possible exemptions to federal photo identification requirements under the REAL ID Act of 2005 (P.L. 109-13). The REAL ID Act contains a number of provisions relating to improved security for drivers licenses and personal identification cards. The REAL ID Act also requires, without exemption, that a digital photograph appear on each document. Some have argued that an exemption should be provided for individuals with religious objections to the photograph requirement to comport with the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA, P.L. 103-141). The Free Exercise Clause prohibits Congress from enacting any law that prohibits the free exercise of religion, guaranteeing individuals the right to practice their religious beliefs without government interference. [ Read more ... ]