Biometrics (catch all)

**motorfirebox** · 06-21-2011

It would help, yeah, but such a system would have to collect, verify, and cross-index biometric data very quickly and very accurately in huge volumes, and remain extremely secure. Those limitations seem pretty daunting to me, though I'm not an expert.

And if we did manage to create a system with that sort of capability, I'd fight it with guns, bombs, knives, fists, and teeth. Those who give up liberty for security etcetera etcetera.

**SJPONeill** · 06-22-2011

Originally Posted by motorfirebox

And if we did manage to create a system with that sort of capability, I'd fight it with guns, bombs, knives, fists, and teeth. Those who give up liberty for security etcetera etcetera.

If...?

Don't get a passport then...or join any of the services - not just for the US but any of the 5 eyes nations...and certainly don't 'them' record your photo for your drivers' license...

This technology not only exists but it is here and in daily use...

**motorfirebox** · 06-22-2011

There's a little bit of a difference between my driver's license--or my expired military ID card, for that matter--and the complete lack of anonymity that was described in the post I was responding to.

**davidbfpo** · 06-22-2011

One of the issues surrounding biometrics is that there are competing systems on offer, particularly around what is collected for rapid, on point identification. There are those in Europe who argue that retina / iris scans are not suffiecent and that photo / image processing is subverted by women in particular with hair colour changes. Instead we are told that traditional fingerprints are the best method for identification and new IT enables a hand to be swipped across a reader.

In the UK the use at border of retina scanning, appropriately called IRIS, is being withdrawn by stealth - for example by not maintaining the machinery or by design, not installing at new airport terminals - even when use has been going up.

It is almost like the competing video systems of yesteryear, BetaMax and VHS. VHS won and was then overtaken by the DVD.

There are immense problems in the EU with resolving multiple, legal identities; notably around names used and date(s) of birth.

What does intrigue me is that well known gaps in identity document creation and delivery are not being addressed systematically. It is well known there are problems with passport delivery in certain areas for example.

As SWC has a mainly US readership, replace passport with driving licence.

I remain unconvinced that in 'small wars', invariably in less-developed places and Iraq managed to go in reverse, that biometrics and associated IT offer that much - for general population control. For access control and personnel records yes they can be useful.

My 'litmus test' is will it help defeat the LRA (and the like)?

**davidbfpo** · 02-27-2016

An excerpt from a forthcoming book, All the Ways We Kill and Die, by Brian Castner tells the story of the hunt for the bomb-makers of Iraq and Afghanistan:http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the...metrics-at-war

It ends with a telling point:

Because that’s the funny thing about using biometrics. The only way to find one person is to find everyone.

From the author's website:

This is the story of an American family at war, and the men and women who fight this new technology-heavy and intelligence-based conflict. I interviewed intel analysts, biometrics engineers, drone pilots, special operations aircrew, amputees who lost their legs, and the contractors hired to finish the job. They are all hunting a man known as al-Muhandis, The Engineer, the brains behind the devices that have killed so many soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

**davidbfpo** · 03-09-2016

From WoTR and from a different angle:http://warontherocks.com/2016/03/tra...-than-answers/

The author's bio:

Sarah Soliman led U.S. Special Operations Command’s first Identity Operations team in Afghanistan, as chronicled in the book “All the Ways We Kill and Die.” She is an Emerging Technology Trends Project Associate at the nonprofit, nonpartisan RAND Corporation and is pursuing her doctorate through King’s College London’s Department of War Studies. She can be reached @BiometricsNerd.