[LibertarianExchange] OPINION RELEASE: Biometrics slope got slippery awfully quick ...

Sat, 05 Nov 2005 15:21:23 -0800

 
Rick Stanley
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OPINION RELEASE: Biometrics slope got slippery awfully quick ...
 
 

Biometrics slope got slippery awfully quick ...
 
Just two months after
<http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2005/05/texas-risks-identity-theft-with-big.html>HB
2337 took effect allowing the Texas Department of
Public Safety to gather drivers' biometric
information and removing judicial oversight of
its use, Governor Perry let the other shoe drop.
The Dallas News reported yesterday
(<http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/110205dntexhomeland.1bfdf484.html>Exclusive:
State homeland plan links data," Nov. 2):
The Texas Fusion Center is one facet of an
ambitious new homeland security strategy to be
unveiled by Gov. Rick Perry's office today.
 
The five-year plan, described as a "high-level
road map for our homeland security efforts," is
designed to bring together 34 state agencies and
24 regional councils to focus on preventing
terrorism, protecting critical infrastructure and
recovering from man-made and natural disasters.
 
Among the plan's elements:
 
.The use of driver's licenses and identification
cards with biometric identifiers, in this case an
embedded fingerprint. Applicants will also have
their fingerprints checked against federal
criminal and terrorism lists. The Texas standard
goes beyond what Congress required for enhancing
driver's license security in the controversial REAL ID Act this year.
 
So Texas has not only
<http://injusticeanywhere.blogspot.com/2005/05/warrantless-searches-at-their.html>removed
restrictions on police using drivers'
fingerprints, now the state will routinely vet
them through federal databases nobody ever
mentioned before. That's almost the definition of
a slippery slope. (Before HB 2337 passed,
drivers' fingerprints in Texas were considered
private, personal data only accessible with a court order.)
 
The Houston Chronicle's Polly Hughes followed up
today
("<http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3435054>Worries
mount about system to ID drivers," Nov. 3) with
more on the risks of Texas' new biometrics
database,
<http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=biometric+site%3Agritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com&btnG=Google+Search>many
of which will be familiar to Grits readers. For
starters
(<http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2005/03/company-bidding-on-tx-drivers-license.html>as
I warned before the bill passed), "A company the
state hired to gather computerized facial imaging
and thumbprints on all Texas driver's licenses
failed to protect the identities of 7,500 Nevada
drivers last spring," Hughes reported.
"Yes, indeedy. They stole everything you needed
to make digitized driver's licenses," [a Nevada
official] said. He added that the heist netted
Social Security numbers, names, ages, dates of
birth and photographs of drivers.
 
Ironically, a system touted as a tool to catch
people with fake IDs could have the opposite
effect if personal information of drivers gets
out. "This new system is an identity thief's
dream come true," said Ann del Llano of the
American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. "Now any
good identity thief in the world has a new
database that's going to be one of the largest databases that exists."
 
That's exactly right, as Grits argued
<http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2005/05/texas-risks-identity-theft-with-big.html>here
and
<http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2005/03/biometric-passwords-risk-gravest-form.html>here
during the 79th Legislature. What's more,
reported Hughes, Rep. Frank "Corte's House Bill
2337 not only authorizes the new method for
recognizing thumb and facial images, it also
gives law enforcement agencies the power to
access the high-tech images without first
obtaining a search warrant as required in the
past." (Don't forget, you
<http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2005/05/hb-2337-no-warrant-for-police-to-get.html>heard
it here first!)
 
Rep. Corte summed up the matter with his closing
comments in Hughes' article: "Really, I guess it
depends on, who are you going to trust? If you
don't trust government, you don't trust any of that stuff," he said.
 
Trust us, we're the government. When did that
become the slogan of the Republican Party? What
happened to the party of small government, one
wonders? Ronald Reagan must be spinning in his grave.
 
When Texas passed HB 2337 I asked,
"<http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2005/05/where-are-small-government.html>Where
are the small government conservatives?" I still
want to know. For whatever reason, very few of
them seem to make it through the GOP primary
process into state government. Instead we get Big
Brother's handmaidens, like Rick Perry and Frank Corte.
posted by Gritsforbreakfast at 8:41 AM
 
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