A Driver’s License and Facial Recognition

Safe and secure

Have you noticed how many things have changed to ‘keep us safe’?  With even a hint of terrorism, Homeland Security can take away a person’s civil liberties.  At airports we stand in line, part of the herd, while luggage, bags and even our bodies are subjected to inspection.  Have a manicure kit?  Leave it at home.  An artist traveling on assignment?  Buy a new X-acto knife.  Does your baby’s formula get irradiated when it goes through the scanner?  If you’re worried about side effects, carry one bottle with you, hope your baby doesn’t get real hungry, and buy more formula and/or bottles when you get there.  Extreme examples?  Perhaps, but before 9/11 we would have raised holy heck if airport security insisted on a body search and you know it.  Safety over civil liberty — which is the chicken and which the egg; and which one comes first?

A citizen’s privacy

Although some voices protest the increasing power of government over individual freedoms, we seem complacent as our rights get reinterpreted for investigators’ purposes, infringed upon, and outright violated.  Of course this only happens to bad people, right?  It’s for the sake of national security, right?  It will keep terrorists away from us, right?  Perhaps all of this is true, but we shouldn’t be so willing to give up even part of the freedom our ancestors fought for, and our armed forces fight — and die — to preserve.  We should expect accountability even while we look for safety.

Facial recognition and your driver’s license

The majority of us know that facial recognition technology and software is in common use these days.  It’s only being used to help law enforcement identify terrorists, right?  Again, perhaps not.  The FBI has a pilot program in North Carolina that uses facial recognition to locate fugitives.  It’s been successful enough that the agency is thinking about expanding it nationwide.

Ever wonder why we’re not supposed to smile for our driver’s license photo?  It’s to make it easier for facial recognition software to compare faces accurately.  What does your driver’s license have to do with fugitives?  The FBI takes the photos of known fugitives and uses facial recognition to compare those photos to the photos in the DMV registry’s database in North Carolina.  Essentially every licensed driver in North Carolina goes through a line-up when the FBI is searching for a fugitive.

The FBI is not authorized to collect or store license photos.  They are, however, granted access to records stored in North Carollina’s DMV database through state and federal laws.  One advantage that has proponents excited, and is sure to win the approval of Congress, is that running facial recognition comparisons is not labor-intensive.  This would have bean counters, er . . . efficiency and budget experts doing a happy dance.

Where is all this taking us?

I don’t know and can’t even guess, but I don’t like the look of the map we’re using these days.  All of us need to become more aware of how our private and biometric information is used — and by whom.  I certainly don’t want to wake up one day to find the America and civil liberties I grew up with had disappeared while I ’slept’.  Just an FYI comment.

That’s my point of view.  I’d really like to know yours.