Our government's addiction to your personal information – NSA Facial Recognition

by Mark Lerner (June 2, 2014)

For years the Constitutional Alliance has maintained that biometric enrollment was and is the “prize” for our government and other countries around the world.  International standards for biometric collection and global information sharing are the goals that have been met. The photograph in your DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) database is a biometric.  Biometrics and specifically facial recognition, allows for each of us to be identified and tracked when in public. Currently there is no law, or so we are told, to protect us against the use of facial recognition technology. Now thanks to the Snowden documents just released, we know the NSA has been building their own photo database to identify suspected terrorists and other “intelligence targets.” This article will explain why this is important to you and provide a way for you to make a difference.  

How much longer will it take the public to realize each citizen is just as much a suspect as a jihadist? There is no presumption of innocence.  Our government has stated that it considers domestic or “homegrown” terrorism as much, or even a greater threat than foreign terrorists.

Why is facial recognition the biometric of choice?  The answer is simple; facial recognition can be used without your knowledge or consent.  Don't misunderstand, the NSA wants additional biometrics such as fingerprints and “other identifiers.”  Before I go any further, I want to be clear that biometrics in and of themselves do not identify you.  Breeder documents, such as the birth certificates we provide to the DMV, and other agencies and departments are what establish our identity.  

Facial recognition allows for an image collected by a camera (CCTV, smart phone, drone, or spy satellite) to be “matched” to an image in a database.  For instance if you are walking down the street and a CCTV camera, a law enforcement officer with a smart phone, a drone, or even spy satellite “captures” your facial image, the facial image captured is then matched against our facial images in DMV and other databases. Once a “match” occurs, then the other information about you (i.e. birth certificate) in the database is what establishes your identity.  One real problem is the technology is far from accurate when one image is compared against many images, in what is called a “one to many” application.  

One reason lawmakers at the state and federal level have been so “ignorant” about the issue of mandated biometric enrollment is they have been told the “photo” is not a biometric.  I am not suggesting all state lawmakers are ignorant; some are knowingly complicit in creating a surveillance state.  Just a week or so ago in Louisiana, law enforcement testified before a state senate hearing that the digital facial image collected by the Office of Motor Vehicles in Louisiana is not a biometric.  Despite the fact the Constitutional Alliance provided overwhelming irrefutable evidence to the contrary, state senators believed what they had been told by the Superintendent of the State Police.  In Oklahoma, the DPS (Department of Public Safety) told people that a high resolution digital facial image was needed so a person could look at a driver's license and “see” the photo.  Later when former State Senator Randy Brogdon wrote DPS asking to see for himself, a side by side comparison of a low resolution photo and a high resolution digital facial image/photograph as they appear on a driver's license, DPS wrote back showing both photos; there was not a difference that any person could distinguish.  

Most citizens believe only the people living in Real ID compliant states have to worry about the Real ID Act 2005 and what it means to them.  The fact is in every state, a digital facial image is being collected that is facial recognition compatible.  This was not always the case.  Previously most states were using analog photographs.  Low resolution photos are not facial recognition compatible. The error rate with analog photos is substantially higher, thus the move to a high resolution digital facial image.  If what you have read so far does not bother you, how do you feel about being enrolled into a global system of “identification” that directly links your body using biometrics, to your ability to buy, sell, travel, and work?

The standard for the digital facial image collection taking place in every state DMV is the same.  It is the adopted standard of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (an international organization despite it's name), the vendor who provides your state driver's licenses (in most states that vendor is Morpho Trust, the U.S. subsidiary of a French company, owned 1/3 by the French government), and the International Civil Aviation Organization (an agency of the United Nations).  The standard being adopted is the standard of the International Organization for Standardization.

If you take your fingertip and dip it in ink, and then press your fingertip on a piece of paper, the result is a fingerprint.  A high resolution digital facial image is no different than a fingerprint.  Ask yourself is a baseball a baseball only when the baseball is hit with a baseball bat? The answer is, a baseball is a baseball, whether it ever gets hit with a baseball bat or not.  Your digital facial image is a biometric whether it is used with facial recognition software or not.  

There are three elements or steps necessary for the use of any computerized/automated biometric process.  First, there needs to be a “biometric sample” (e.g. fingerprint, digital facial image, iris scan, DNA, voice recording).  The second step is converting the biometric sample to biometric data.  The final step is to create a biometric template.  Anyone who would argue that the high resolution digital facial image is not a biometric is either not knowledgeable or is trying to deceive people about the true purpose of collecting the high resolution digital facial image, which is to use facial recognition software.  

Facial recognition works by “mapping” your face.  Distances are measured between key characteristics of your face (e.g eyes, mouth, nose).  The distances, we are told, are unique to each individual person.  We have also been told that no two people have the same fingerprints.  PBS aired a program, “The Real CSI” which debunked the notion that a computer would not recognize the fingerprints of two different people as being the same.  In fact, our own FBI misidentified a man as a “terrorist” based on fingerprint identification.  Two people had the same fingerprint according to the computerized process.  

It is not a secret that the FBI is spending upwards of $1 billion dollars creating what it calls, the world's largest biometric database.

The program is called NGI (Next Generation Identification).  The FBI has already collected over 50 million facial images.  We do not know how many facial images DHS has collected but we do know DHS has admitted to three different domestic spying programs.  Under legislation that has passed the U.S. Senate, Comprehensive Immigration Reform (S744), every person will have to provide their digital facial image to DHS in order to be able to work. 

We know the TSA and the State Department would like access to state DMV photo databases.  We know the federal government has been offering states grant money to enter into “Photo Sharing Compacts.”  We also know that Executive Orders and other “tools” are used by agencies and departments of the federal government to share the biometrics in their respective databases.  If anyone believes the NSA does not, or will not have the largest photo database in the world, including the digital facial images of U.S. citizens, I have a bridge to sell them in Brooklyn.  As I said earlier, our government has already said domestic or homegrown terrorism is our greatest threat.  If you have not read the “2009 Domestic Extremism Lexicon” that DHS produced, you should.  You would be surprised to know that veterans, Ron Paul supporters, pro-life advocates, environmentalists, anti-war protestors, and about everyone else is a “potential domestic terrorist.” That is a convenient way of making nearly every person a “suspect” and justifying knowing everything about everyone

Ask your state elected officials if a search warrant is required before your photo in your state DMV database can be shared with state and federal agencies/departments.  You will find out the answer is “No.”  As a matter of fact, your biometrics can be shared globally through the International Justice and Public Safety Network.  Even if your state DMV is not using facial recognition software, that does not prevent your photograph being shared with entities outside your state, and inside your state that are using facial recognition software.  We also have cities here in the United States using facial recognition software.  

What is clear is the United States has created a surveillance state of the type and size that has never been seen before in the history of the world. Hard as you or anyone may try, a surveillance state and a free society can't be reconciled.  Automatic License Plate Readers, drones, CCTV cameras, keystroke technology (allows another person to know what you are typing on your computer), and mandated biometric enrollment, are only a fraction of the tools being used by our government in the furtherance of the surveillance state.  

Several NSA analysts came forward about domestic spying being done by our government, before Snowden had released any documents about domestic and foreign spying.  The accounts of these men were dismissed because they did not have the hard documentation that Snowden did to back up what they were saying.  Those men have now been vindicated by the Snowden documents.  Whether a person believes Snowden is a traitor or a patriot, does not change the fact that our government is creating a 24/7 digital footprint of each of us.  From the time we wake up, until the time we go to sleep, we are being monitored.  Who you are with, what you are doing. where you are at, and much more is being collected about each of us.  

It is not just the NSA, DHS, the CIA and the FBI that are collecting information about each of us.  Just this past week it was revealed that the federal government has two agencies collecting the religious affiliation of citizens.  This was not and is not being done by congress passing a new law. These agencies/departments posted a notice in the Federal Register.  The “old” days when you would provide information to one agency or department of the federal government, and feel somewhat secure that the information was being put in a “silo” or in other words not being shared, are over.  

DHS has gone so far as to exempt itself from the provisions of the Privacy Act of 1974.  Once again, this was done by a posting in the Federal Register.  As a person who speaks with state lawmakers in just about every state, I can tell you state lawmakers do not read the Federal Register.  I would guess 99.9% of all people in our country do not read the Federal Register.  Members of congress do not read the Federal Register.  

The “Chilling Effect” of a surveillance state is an equal opportunity offender.  Whether a person is a Democrat, Republican, Independent, or has no party affiliation, they are being “watched” constantly.  A few short years ago a person living in London, England was “captured” on CCTV cameras 300 times a day.  That was a record until now.  Today a person in New York City is captured on CCTV 350 times a day on average.  Check with your state and local law enforcement to see what the numbers are where you live.  Better yet, check with your state lawmakers and see if they know.  The “Chilling Effect” of a surveillance state is real and quantifiable.  The right of people to exercise free speech, right to peacefully assemble, right to seek redress, our religious freedom, and other rights including our right against unreasonable searches and seizures are all infringed upon when a surveillance state does exist.  Professional writers including journalists have said that they change what they write because of the surveillance state that we have allowed to be created.  

I will end with two comments.  One, biometrics is the linchpin of a surveillance state.  The very fact that you can be identified and tracked when you are in public is inhibiting at best and unconstitutional at worst.  Two, there is a woman in Oklahoma that is standing up and fighting against mandated global biometric enrollment.  Biometric identification is not national but rather international.  When your biometrics allow for you to be identified and tracked whether you are in Paris, Texas or in Paris, France you are enrolled into a global system of identification and financial control.  I say financial control because we now need biometric photo identification to open bank accounts, cash checks and if congress has it's way, to work as well.  You are not going to be doing a great deal of buying and selling if you cannot work.  This woman in Oklahoma, Kaye Beach, is a wife, mother, patriot, and a Christian.  All freedom loving people in our country should be supporting Kaye Beach financially.  We have a link in the homepage of our web-site that allows individuals to donate to Kaye Beach's legal defense fund.  All a person has to do is visit www.constitutionalalliance.org

Please provide the Constitutional Alliance web-site to everyone you are in contact with and ask those people to do the same.

God Bless these United States of America