Comment by Animats

Comment by Animats 6 hours ago

Don't most people in the US get fingerprinted at some point?

Let's see. I've been fingerprinted, all 10 fingers, for, at least, 1) the US Army, 2) security clearance for a DoD job, multiple times, 3) a permit to ride a horse on SF Water Department property, and 4) Customs and Border Protection Global Entry, which also took an iris scan.

California DMV takes a thumbprint, but not all 10 fingers. They've been recording me at every transaction for decades.

So I'm on file.

I think of being IDd as a normal part of life, for any position of trust. Is this unusual?

orochimaaru 29 minutes ago

Exactly. As a naturalized citizen my fingerprints are already on file. - everytime I entered the US when I was not a citizen - when I filed my green card application - when I went for my citizenship interview - TSA precheck biometrics because I travel quite a bit.

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b3lvedere 5 hours ago

What may be information regarding a check for position of trust today, may well be information regarding a check if you should be locked up because of other reasons, tomorrow.

The issue is not the information itself, but how the information will be used. The chance of abusing information is not zero. But having rigorous rules and processes regarding that information, for instance mandatory destruction of said information, will greatly reduce the chance of abuse in the uncertain future.

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jansper39 2 hours ago

I live in the apparent dystopia that is the UK and I've never had my fingerprint or DNA taken. Seems a bit of an overreach.

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jvvw 6 minutes ago

I'm in my 50s and British and I've only had it done once: by the police when the house I was living in got burgled and they wanted to rule out our finger prints. It was 30 years ago and I imagine I could have refused. I didn't really think about it at the time.

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WickyNilliams 15 minutes ago

Likewise a British citizen in the UK. Funnily, while the UK government does not have my fingerprints, the US gov does! They were taken at the border when I visited. All 10 fingers

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tpm an hour ago

> I've never had my fingerprint or DNA taken.
Automated passport-and-fingerprint (sometimes also iris) scanning is now often the default route at many airports.

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psychoslave 5 hours ago

Depend what the "position of trust" is taken. Security clearance for departement of defense is certainly not something the median citizen can be expected to go through.

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hnbad 5 hours ago

Surely there's a difference between collecting a thumbprint for a driver's license or even collecting full fingerprints for a specific job type, and collecting your DNA and an iris scan just for being a citizen?

I'm German. My government literally issues ID cards and requires fingerprints for those nowadays as well (because terrorism or the children or whatever works as the excuse at the moment) but the idea of a government agency collecting my DNA seems far more invasive given the kind of things you can do with that information and the kind of things governments (especially in my country but in the US and Canada too) have historically done to groups of people under them.

If you think there's nothing concerning about the government wanting to collect extensive biometric data including DNA from not only people applying for immigration but also people associated with them or their application, maybe it would sound more concerning to you if I said that in German.

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extraduder_ire an hour ago

In the EU, national ID cards are required to contain fingerprints in an electronically readable section. (a private key is required to read them via NFC) As a result, Ireland started issuing passport cards, since compliant passports can be used in place of a national ID card. The only biometric data on my passport is a black and white image of my face. (that can be read with a key derived from data on the passport itself)

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thaumasiotes 4 hours ago

> Surely there's a difference between collecting a thumbprint for a driver's license or even collecting full fingerprints for a specific job type, and collecting your DNA and an iris scan just for being a citizen?
Not really; every citizen is expected to have a driver's license, and this takes place before anyone has really thought about the issue even if they're likely to object later. It's sort of like the difference between baptizing infants and baptizing adults.
You're right that there's more information in the DNA, but what difference do you see in the iris scan?

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