FBI/U.K. Biometrics Database: Server in the Sky With Diamonds

By Tim McGuinness Ph.D. on January 29th, 2008

The FBI joins hands with a vast biometrics database, all the way across the sea to the United Kingdom! The Bureau plans to cast a wider net on the growing sea of crime and close the Atlantic-sized gap in investigation. It’s the “server in the sky” (as it is being called) that would link the U.S. with the U.K. Both countries’ law enforcement arms would link up through this for improved crime detection and terrorism prevention.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently in talks with U.K. law enforcement agencies about sharing criminal data (such as fingerprints, palm prints, DNA samples and iris scans) to effectively monitor and track down international criminals and terrorists. Pooling all available resources and organized pieces of information on both would-be and wanted criminals would be at the top of the proposed agenda, should plans be approved.

The plan was created by the FBI at the International Information Consortium, attended by the five major “allies in the war on terror”, namely the U.S., the U.K., New Zealand, Canada and Australia. The biometric data-gathering and data-comparing system ( called “Next Generation Identification” by the agency), would classify individuals into three categories: internationally-wanted terrorists; high-profile criminals and terror suspects; and those being closely monitored for possible involvement in crimes or acts of terror.

The Washington Post reports that $1 billion dollars have been earmarked by the FBI to organize and streamline this massive centralized criminal database. While nothing is set in stone, the U.K.’s National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) said that a possible tie up between “Ident1” (the U.K.’s database holding more than 7 million bits of criminal information), with the FBI’s respective data pool is part of the proposal. It must be noted that much of the information culled in the U.K.’s Ident1 either comes from people with no criminal record or are prints that belong to unidentified persons, which will make for a strange mix of the innocent and the guilty.

The U.S. company that had developed Ident1, Northrop Grumman, confirms that it has already communicated with the FBI regarding the “Server in the Sky” concept. But, according to the NPIA, all discussions at the moment remain “initial discussions” and not “agreements”.

Announcement of the FBI plan comes amid news of the U.K.’s newly-developed visitor-tagging system that checks and collects the fingerprints of visa applicants. So soon Big Brother will be watching from both sides of the Atlantic!

Image Source: The Guardian

Source: The Guardian