US

Big Data, cloud, military, US

The US Army’s big data cloud app suite

Army demonstrates disputed intelligence system (Army Times)

“It is globally deployed, this is not a system that is in the lab, this is a system that is supporting and has supported nine corps, 38 divisions, 138 brigades,” said Lt. Gen. Mary Legere, the the Army’s deputy chief of staff for intelligence. “It supports today our operations in Afghanistan and the greater Middle East, Africa, the Pacific, Korea and anywhere you have soldiers who are deployed.”
…
The Army’s cloud-based system — called the Distributed Common Ground System-Army — collects raw intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance data from 600 sources, including battlefield reports, biometrics databases, unmanned aerial systems and manned reconnaissance aircraft, as well as joint, national and strategic sources. From there, analysts can connect the dots using a variety of software tools, putting actionable intelligence in the hands of battlefield commanders.

Forty apps using data from 600 sources.

airport, fingerprint, immigration, interoperability, travel, US, visa

US: Entry/exit dominating today’s biometrics news

An amendment to the immigration bill being discussed in the Senate Judiciary Committee has been all over the news this morning.

See:
Senators propose fingerprinting at airport security (Click Orlando), and
US senators approve immigration changes requiring fingerprint system at 30 airports (Truth Dive)

This Reuters piece is more detailed:
US panel votes to speed up airport fingerprinting of immigrants (Reuters)

The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-5 for an amendment to a wide-ranging immigration bill that would require the installation of devices to check immigrants’ fingerprints at the 10 busiest U.S. airports within two years of enactment of the legislation.

Checks currently are made at airports for foreigners arriving and re-entering the country but not when they leave. “It’s just a matter of having records we can keep so we know where we’re going,” Republican Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah told reporters of his successful amendment.

The committee’s work commands worldwide attention because it’s personal to many people because of their own travel habits, aspirations for immigration or education, or the living situation of friends or loved-ones.

It is also of worldwide importance because the United States will have a large role to play in any eventual interoperable international system accounting for international travel.

The amendment adopted by the committee would, in the event of the bill’s passage, institute a fingerprint-based entry/exit system starting with the ten busiest U.S. airports over two years.

The best framing I have read of the lack of-, case for-, and challenges associated with a decent entry/exit system is David Grant’s Immigration reform: What to do about those who arrive legally but never leave?

And in March, we wrote:

[… R]elevant to integrating the entry and exit points is the percentage of international travelers who enter a country through one international travel node and depart the country from another.

The more nodes, the more travelers, the more complex the travel patterns of international visitors, all of these things place additional pressures on any sort of entry/exit system and these complexities don’t necessarily increase as a linear function.

Of course all of this has bearing on the United States which has every challenge there is. It’s not surprising that, biometrics or no biometrics, the US lacks a comprehensive integrated entry/exit system. A couple of good pilot projects might go a long way towards getting an idea of the exact scope of some of the challenges, though. [emph. added]

With that in mind, does the committee’s amendment fit in with the idea of a “good pilot” project? I think so. Despite reluctance to call anything happening in the ten busiest airports in the country a “pilot project,” so as not to trivialize the challenges involved, the scope of a truly comprehensive entry/exit system accounting for all air, sea and land transport is so vast that it does make “pilot project” seem appropriate here.

But in order for this avenue to a pilot actually to lead there, even in two years, the whole immigration bill currently being fashioned in the Judiciary Committee must pass the full U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Even if the broader immigration overhaul fails to attract majority legislative support, the 13-5 committee vote may bode well for the pilot on a stand-alone basis. You have to start somewhere.

face, immigration, politics, US

‘Wired’ drops biometric fly into Senate’s immigration ointment

Wired threw the double whammy of “Biometric” and “National ID” into the middle of the Senate and national debate on overhauling the U.S. immigration system.

The article that touched it all this off is:

Biometric Database of All Adult Americans Hidden in Immigration Reform (Wired)

The immigration reform measure the Senate began debating yesterday would create a national biometric database of virtually every adult in the U.S., in what privacy groups fear could be the first step to a ubiquitous national identification system.

Organs on both sides of the American political scene — the left-leaning Daily Beast and the right-leaning Daily Caller — found the Wired piece wanting.

The Immigration Bill does not create a ‘biometric database of all adult Americans’ (Daily Beast)

The idea of the government creating a massive biometric database for virtually all adult Americans is indeed terrifying, and if the story was true, would be cause for genuine outrage

Fortunately, Wired’s assertion is false. Here are the facts: [ed. article continues]

‘Wired’s attack on immigration reform gets biometrics wrong (Daily Caller) 

Any E-Verify system that could actually prevent fraud will necessarily be more intrusive than the current system. In this case, an effort is being made to guarantee job applicants actually are who they say they are — that they are not merely stealing someone else’s social security number.

This is not to say we shouldn’t be vigilant in regards to protecting our civil liberties. There is a natural tension at play as immigration reformers work to create a system that actually prevents the employment of illegals who wish to skirt the law.

Both articles also run with a novel (to me) argument, potentially from the same source, that a face photo isn’t really biometric in nature.

Daily Beast:

That isn’t a “biometric” data set by any reasonable definition. As a Senate aide told me: [ed. cont’d]

Daily Caller:

There is also a semantics problem with the Wired story; photographs, I am told, don’t technically qualify as “biometrics.” 

That will come as quite a shock to many people who have been developing facial recognition algorithms for a decade or more and the thousands of people who use facial recognition technologies already. If drivers license-style photos of faces aren’t reasonably good proxies for unique identifiers, why do photo ID’s exist in the first place?

UPDATE:
David Bier writing at OpenMarket.org provides valuable commentary in Sorry, Daily Beast: E-Verify Will Be National ID.

This bit reinforces the point we made above:

Never mind how experts or the general public use the word, the phrase biometric identification has a specific legal definition. Under 46 USC 70123, “the term “biometric identification” means use of fingerprint and digital photography images and facial and iris scan technology and any other technology considered applicable by the Department of Homeland Security.” In other words, the government itself defines photographs as biometric identification. [ed. all emphasis and link in orig.]

AFIS, child care, criminal background check, fingerprint, Georgia, US

US: Background check requirements for working in child care facilities

Fingerprint background checks for day care workers in Georgia (Biometric Update)

Georgia’s governor, Nathan Deal has just signed a bill into law that will see national fingerprint and criminal record searches performed for day care workers.

Georgia is joining the 32 states* requiring a check of the FBI fingerprint database and 30 states that require a sate-level fingerprint check for employment as a child care provider.

A table of state-by-state Child Care Center Regulations [pdf] compiled by Child Care Aware® of America shows which states require fingerprint searches of state and federal databases.

Here’s a summary:

The linked pdf contains information on what type of background check (Federal fingerprints, state fingerprints, criminal record check, child abuse registries, sex offender registries) is conducted in each jurisdiction.

The document is current as of April 17, 2013 and the aforementioned table has notes changes in the law that aren’t yet in force.

Observations:
A few states require a search against one of the fingerprint databases but not the other.
Many states require a search against both fingerprint databases but not the state’s sex offender registry.

*plus the District of Columbia and the U.S. Department of Defense. The study accounts for 52 political entities referred to as “states” throughout this post.

border, immigration, US

Know your fingerprint terminology

Handy-dandy fingerprint terminology reference…
The definitions are longer and more detailed at the link.

What Is a Patent Fingerprint? (AZCentral)

If you’re in the business of crime scene investigation or forensic lab analysis, you have to know your fingerprint terminology. Fingerprints are complex natural patterns, and fingerprint professionals use a sophisticated jargon to describe their appearance.

Patent Fingerprint – visible image of a person’s fingertip left on a surface as a result of residue on the finger.

Plastic Fingerprint – impression left in a pliable substance, such as clay, wax or wet paint.

Latent Fingerprint – print left on a surface as the result of natural oils on the skin

Exemplar Fingerprint – deliberate print specifically made as part of a record

AFIS, fingerprint, immigration, law enforcement, Philippines, US

Philippines expands biometric law enforcement capabilities

Philippines: US donates two biometric machines to Immigration (Business Mirror)

Lawyer Maria Antonette Mangrobang, BI acting intelligence chief, said with the biometrics equipment the bureau will now to be able to build a wider and more reliable database of the illegal aliens and foreign fugitives wanted by immigration intelligence personnel.

He said, henceforth, the machine will be used to scan the fingerprints of all arrested aliens, and the data will be kept in a database along with their photographs.

border, immigration, politics, US

The immigration debate: Entry & exit tracking

The topics we hit on in Who’s in my country? That’s a tough one. are addressed in more depth and from a United States perspective below.

I found the analogy in the brief excerpt below particularly apt.

Immigration reform: What to do about those who arrive legally but never leave? (Alaska Dispatch)

Build a statistical measure of the border’s security? Too complicated. Determine “operational control” over certain amounts of the American southern border? Too undefined. Establish certain levels of infrastructure and security personnel? Too expensive.

That’s part of the over-arching problem: with broad dysfunction in many parts of the immigration and border security system, it has been difficult to marshal the political will and financial resources to fix any one part without a broad overhaul.

“You have an automobile that has no tires, no wheels, no doors, no engine, and then, alright, great, you put two brand new tires on it [and ask] ‘Why doesn’t it work?’” says Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R) of Florida, a key House immigration reform negotiator.

immigration, US, verification

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services adopting biometric verification in field offices

Biometric Data Will Be Collected At Immigration Offices Starting In May (Fox News Latino)

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), the arm of Homeland Security that handles such things as naturalization and permanent residency, or “green cards,” announced Monday that next month it would implement the Customer Identity Verification, or CIV, at its field offices.

The new system will require people to submit biometric data such as fingerprints and photographs, as well as government-issued documentation, when going to immigration offices to conduct business.

Identities will be verified before services are preformed. This is different than simply collecting and warehousing the information. Both law enforcement and identity protection implications are discussed in the brief article.

immigration, integration, Philippines, travel, US, visa

Who’s in my country? That’s a tough one.

Philippines will deploy biometrics for documenting the arrival and departure of international travellers (FutureGov Asia)

BI Commissioner Ricardo David Jr said the programme will enhance the country’s border security and boost the agency’s capability to thwart the entry of foreign terrorists and other illegal aliens.

The new scheme involves the use of an ink-less device and digital camera in capturing the fingerprints and photographs of the foreign visitors.

Doing something like this is easier for some countries than others. The Philippines has some advantages and challenges. Advantages include the lack of land borders with other countries. Since it’s an archipelago, they can be pretty sure that no one is walking or driving there, so except for clandestine boat or plane landings, covering the sea- and airports takes care of it. But there are a surprising (to me) number of those, so the integration challenges are real.

Also relevant to integrating the entry and exit points is the percentage of international travelers who enter a country through one international travel node and depart the country from another.

The more nodes, the more travelers, the more complex the travel patterns of international visitors, all of these things place additional pressures on any sort of entry/exit system and these complexities don’t necessarily increase as a linear function.

Of course all of this has bearing on the United States which has every challenge there is. It’s not surprising that, biometrics or no biometrics, the US lacks a comprehensive integrated entry/exit system. A couple of good pilot projects might go a long way towards getting an idea of the exact scope of some of the challenges, though.

immigration, travel, US, visa

USA Today Editorial duels Op-Ed on biometric exit monitoring system

Border security not just about walls: Our view — USA Today Editorial Board

A full biometric system plus immigration agents plus court personnel would cost tens of billions that the government doesn’t have. But if this year’s immigration reform is to prove more effective and durable than those of the past, this would be a good time to face up to the costs.

We can identify those who overstay on visas — David Heyman, assistant secretary for policy at the Homeland Security Department

Ultimately, biometric exit is not the only exit system that exists. Rather than wait for a time when there is enough funding or capability, we have built and are improving a system that is effective today.

national ID, US, verification

Who would handle the verification end of a US biometric ID system?

Bruce Kennedy at MSN Money does a good job documenting some challenges associated with a national biometric ID in the United States in Should the US have a national biometric ID card?

Appropriately, cost, culture and the mechanics of a possible future system are addressed.
But because biometric enrollment without biometric verification is a half-measure, the thing that really caught my eye was the part about how the verification end of a theoretical future biometric ID system might work.

Should a biometric ID card become a reality, Haag envisions a new micro-market emerging, of companies creating portable employee-verificatio​n systems that would offer their services to other businesses. “Something along the lines of…these trucks driving around now that do all the shredding that guarantee all of your sensitive documents will be 100% shredded,” he says. “I think it would be cost-prohibitive for small business to acquire and maintain the hardware and the software necessary to do it themselves.”

Haag’s vision of mobile verification is interesting. We’ve touched on two other possibilities, neither of which depends strictly upon a national system, in the past in:

The Post Office, Identity Assurance & Biometrics
ID Entrepreneurs: Criminal Background Checks

If you only have time for one of the two, the Post Office one is the way to go.

DHS, government, immigration, technology, US, visa

US visa overstays: An ID problem or a management problem?

Everyone except the Department of Homeland Security (the US Congress apparently mandated a biometric exit logging system over a decade ago) seems to agree that a biometric check in/check out system is the way to go, but according to:

U.S. Struggles to Nab Visitors Who Overstay (Yahoo)

The department is no longer focused on implementing a biometric system, one relying on fingerprints or other unique personal markers, to make sure someone leaving the country is the same person who entered on a particular visa. Instead, the department has begun comparing lists of people with expired visas with lists of foreigners who depart through airports and seaports.

In order to be appropriately bewildered, one really must read the article in its entirety. For example: Among the reasons cited by the Secretary on behalf of the famously frugal DHS is that a biometric system would be “extraordinarily expensive.”

fingerprint, ID management, jail, Michigan, US

Erroneous prisoner release due to “out of order” biometric hardware, Detroit edition

How can the Wayne County jail be overcrowded if beds are empty? (My Fox Detroit)

And last week’s boner. Rocky Marquez, a fugitive found in Detroit with a loaded assault rifle, escaped from county lockup by switching identity with another inmate. How did that happen? The fingerprint identification machine was out of order.

“That is the most basic tool in the world to be able to verify a man’s identity biometrically by his fingerprint. We don’t have it,” said a person who didn’t want to be identified.

“It is a critical piece of equipment that needs to be fixed and we will get it fixed,” Napoleon said.

There was a similar case in Georgia this past December.

adoption, immigration, India, politics, UID, US

India’s UID affecting the political dialogue elsewhere

The US political issue of whether or how best to confer some sort of legal status upon some individuals currently living within the United States without that legal status is getting a lot of attention. The United States’s last attempt at sweeping immigration reform was in 1986. Since then, it’s been baby steps.

The linked article provides more detail for why that might be, but the part that caught my eye is the basic formulation: “If India can execute a biometric project for over a billion people, it should be possible to apply biometrics to this, far less daunting, challenge.”

For example:
Michael Barone commentary: Stars are aligning for a law on immigration that might work (Columbus Dispatch)

So what are the reasons to think such legislation would produce different results from those of the 1986 law?
…
[…S]omething feasible now that wasn’t back then: an identity card linked to a database with biometric identification. India is now creating such a system for its 1.2 billion people. Why can’t we do that for many fewer immigrants and visa holders?

India’s UID project is giving the rest of the world confidence that long-neglected issues can be addressed through a combination of political will and new technology. I expect we’ll be seeing a lot more examples from around the world.

immigration, law, US

US: Biometrics figure in President’s immigration policy overhaul

A plan to fix immigration system (Record Online)

Obama’s plan requires people living in the U.S. illegally to register, submit biometric data, pass criminal background and national security checks, and pay fees and taxes before becoming eligible for legal status. After eight years, they would be eligible for legal permanent resident status and five years later could apply for citizenship. They enter the green card application system behind everyone else already waiting for permits. Children brought to the country illegally by their parents would be eligible for expedited citizenship if they attend college or complete two years of military service. The president also supports equal treatment of same-sex couples when one partner is from outside the U.S. That provision isn’t included in the Senate framework and may be a flash point with Republicans who oppose offering equal rights to same-sex couples.

Switzerland, trusted traveler, US

Will Swiss to say “cheese” for faster entry to US?

Swiss visitors may get fast-track entry to US (Swiss Info)

Swiss travellers to the United States may soon benefit from speedy entry under a new agreement proposed by the US authorities, according to the American ambassador to Bern Donald S. Beyer.

He told the NZZ am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday that participation in the US Global Entry programme managed by US Customs and Border Protection would put Switzerland on a list of “selected countries” whose citizens could gain fast-track entry. 
…
If Switzerland agrees to participate, it would join a handful of countries alongside the Netherlands, Ireland, Mexico and Canada.

Afghanistan, Health Care, military, US

Biometrics and a different side of the Afghan war

…from the Durango Herald:

“You never know who is coming through the gate – it is very important for me to see that I’m getting kids inside the gate and getting (them) to treatment they’re not going to receive anywhere else,” he said.

To ensure the hundreds receiving care each day are safe, Silvia and other troops scan each person’s eyes and fingers with high-tech biometric scanners that provide access to individual information.