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ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER - Last week EPIC, Privacy
International, and Human Rights Watch wrote to US Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates to express concern about the deployment by the US military
of a new system of biometric identification in Iraq. The system was
first reported in a front-page article in USA Today.
Identification systems have always raised privacy concerns -- consider
the current debate in the US over Real ID -- but in regions of the world
with deep ethnic and religious division, systems of identification have
been closely linked to sweeping human rights violations.
There are certain aspects of the US biometric system taking shape in
Iraq that are particularly troubling. The authenticators are tied to
secret profiles. That means that individuals who are stopped by police
will have no idea what information on them is available or what the
basis might be for any adverse act.
The US says that the system will be used to track insurgents. But in
practice, data collection is becoming increasingly widespread, with
military personnel going door to door to ID Iraqis.
There is also the question of who will have access to the database and
how it will be used. The ID system will give a future government
extraordinary control over the civilian population.
And there is the prospect that techniques of population tracking and
control developed in Iraq will be deployed in other areas, including the
United States. L1 Identity Solutions, which was probably the contractor
for the Iraq project, is developing similar systems for US domestic law
enforcement agencies.
Whether anyone in Congress has the courage to address these emerging
human rights concerns remains an open question. But we thought it was
appropriate and necessary for EPIC to pursue, and we are following up
with a FOIA request to the Department of Defense to confirm the identity
of the contractor. (Why do companies that specialize in the
identification of others keep their own role so secret?) We will also be
including a new country report for Iraq in the upcoming edition of the
Privacy and Human Rights report.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/biometrics/epic_iraq_dtbs.pdf
ELECTRONIC PRIVACY INFORMATION CENTER - Last week EPIC, Privacy
International, and Human Rights Watch wrote to US Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates to express concern about the deployment by the US military
of a new system of biometric identification in Iraq. The system was
first reported in a front-page article in USA Today.
Identification systems have always raised privacy concerns -- consider
the current debate in the US over Real ID -- but in regions of the world
with deep ethnic and religious division, systems of identification have
been closely linked to sweeping human rights violations.
There are certain aspects of the US biometric system taking shape in
Iraq that are particularly troubling. The authenticators are tied to
secret profiles. That means that individuals who are stopped by police
will have no idea what information on them is available or what the
basis might be for any adverse act.
The US says that the system will be used to track insurgents. But in
practice, data collection is becoming increasingly widespread, with
military personnel going door to door to ID Iraqis.
There is also the question of who will have access to the database and
how it will be used. The ID system will give a future government
extraordinary control over the civilian population.
And there is the prospect that techniques of population tracking and
control developed in Iraq will be deployed in other areas, including the
United States. L1 Identity Solutions, which was probably the contractor
for the Iraq project, is developing similar systems for US domestic law
enforcement agencies.
Whether anyone in Congress has the courage to address these emerging
human rights concerns remains an open question. But we thought it was
appropriate and necessary for EPIC to pursue, and we are following up
with a FOIA request to the Department of Defense to confirm the identity
of the contractor. (Why do companies that specialize in the
identification of others keep their own role so secret?) We will also be
including a new country report for Iraq in the upcoming edition of the
Privacy and Human Rights report.
http://www.epic.org/privacy/biometrics/epic_iraq_dtbs.pdf
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