Lockheed wins 10-year FBI biometric contract

[OhioChick]

Source: IDG.net

February 13, 2008 (IDG News Service) The Federal Bureau of Investigation has awarded Lockheed Martin a $1 billion contract to build a next-generation biometrics-based identification system.

The biometric collection system and database, which has raised concerns of privacy groups, would include imaging of irises, faces and other identifying characteristics, the FBI said in a news release late Tuesday. Lockheed Martin will design, develop, test and deploy the Next Generation Identification System over the 10-year life of the contract.

The new system will expand on the FBI Criminal Justice Information Services Division's Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS), primarily a fingerprint-based identification system operated in Clarksburg, West Virginia, the FBI said.

"IAFIS has been a fantastic tool in support of criminal justice and the war on terror," Thomas E. Bush III, assistant director of the FBI's CJIS Division, said in a statement. " will give us bigger, better, faster capabilities and lead us into the future."

The American Civil Liberties Union has raised concerns about the biometric database, saying it's part of the U.S. government's efforts to collect more and more information about residents.



Read more: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9062483&intsrc=hm_list

[Drum]

1. Ugh.

:puke:

[jaybeat]

2. Great. More sci-fi turned reality, only worse.

Retina scans create a black market in eye replacement.

You can't go anywhere without them know.

Automated advertising scans you, identifies you, and targets you, as you walk or drive by.

Biometric scanners, of course, "can't lie," so when the airport scanner says you're a terrorist, you are, and have always been, a terrorist.

"We create our own reality." Becoming truer before our eyes.

[PDittie]

3. Minority Report, right?

Department of Pre-Crime.

Nice to see Lockheed is planning ahead for a future when F-16s are unnecessary and obsolete. Oh wait...

[ixion]

4. the REAL reason for the so-called 'war' on terror

right here.

[MilesColtrane]

5. "other identifying characteristics"?

That's DNA to you and me.