CovertAction Quarterly
Big Brother Goes High-Tech, continued
RUNNING_WOLF

BODY PARTS

Biometrics.
If a corporation or government goes to all this expense and trouble, it needs ways of definitively identifying individuals and making sure they are not confused with one another.

Biometrics verification through unique physical characteristics began in the late 19th century with fingerprinting. Recently, automated systems which electronically scan and digitalize fingerprints have taken the technology beyond its traditional role in criminal investigations. The FBI has spent several hundred million dollars over the last few years creating an Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).

Because of the improvements in access, fingerprints are now used for more applications at the state level as well. California and New York require all welfare beneficiaries to be fingerprinted. Even after a New York survey revealed that little fraud was actually detected by the massive fingerprinting effort, the state expanded its program to include all members of the recipient's family.

And, as in so many other cases, the technology is moving

from the margins of society into the mainstream. California is now requiring thumbprints on drivers' licenses; several banks in the Southwest are fingerprinting non-customers who wish to cash checks; and a proposed California referendum would require all newborns to be fingerprinted and issued an official ID card.

A particularly steep incline on the slippery slope to universal tracking is greased with DNA.

The complex molecular structure that holds a genetic code unique to each individual is present in even the smallest sample of hair, tissue, or bodily fluids.

Many states are now empowered to take DNA samples from all convicted felons. The FBI has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars on the technology and infrastructure to create a computer network to link the state databases to create a de facto central registry.

But the largest single DNA database is being proposed by the Department of Defense, which plans to create a registry of all current and former military and reserve soldiers.

Ostensibly designed to identify bodies, the registry would hold four million samples by 2001 and eventually be expanded to handle 18 million. Claiming that destroying the samples when the person left the service would be impractical, the DoD proposes storing the DNA for 75 years.

 Two soldiers have filed suit to prevent the collection of their genetic information, arguing that it is an invasion of privacy and that there are no restrictions on how the DNA can be used.

Somewhat less physically intrusive is a system based on hand geometry, which measures the length and distances between fingers. The US, Netherlands, Canada, and Germany have started a pilot program

 in which international travelers will be issued a smart card that records the unique hand measurements.

Each time travelers pass through customs, they present the card and place their hand in a reader that verifies their identity and links into numerous databases. The member countries have signed an international agreement facilitating information sharing and agreeing to eventually require all international travelers to use the cards. Marketed by Control Data Systems and Canon, it already has 50,000 participants.

SNEAKING A PEEK

In all of these methods of verification, the targeted individual is usually aware of being checked and is often required to cooperate. To facilitate covert identification, much research is currently being conducted into facial recognition and facial thermography.

Facial recognition is based on measuring facial curves from several angles, digitalizing the information, and doing a computer comparison with existing images in a database or on an ID card. NeuroMetric, a Florida manufacturer, claims that its system can scan 20 faces a second, and by 1997 will be able to scan

 and compare images against a database of 50 million faces in seconds.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service is spending millions in a pilot program using video cameras and computer databases to identify known illegal and criminal aliens, terrorists, drug traffickers and other persons of special interest to the US Government at airports, checkpoints and other ports-of-entry. A.C. Neilson, the large market rating company, recently patented a system using facial recognition for covertly identifying shoppers to track their buying habits around a particular region.

Facial thermography measures the characteristic heat patterns emitted by each face. Mikos Corporation claims that its Facial Access Control by Elemental Shapes (FACES) system can identify individuals regardless of temperature, facial hair, and even surgery, by measuring 65,000 temperature points with an accuracy level surpassing fingerprints. It estimates that by 1999, with a price tag of only $1,000, the devices could be used in automated teller machines, point-of-sale terminals, welfare agencies, and computer networks. One serious drawback, they admit, is that alcohol consumption radically changes the thermograms.

SURVEILLANCE AND DATAVEILLANCE

Unless the quality of information keeps pace with the quantity, though, the old computer motto garbage in, garbage out rules. Not surprisingly, then, the commercial and governmental forces that have pushed for improved identification technologies are also supporting ways to refine information-gathering techniques.

New technologies have enhanced the ability to see through walls, overhear conversations, and track movement. At the same time, dataveillance following people through their computerized record trail has become part of daily life.

 Advanced microphones.
The FBI's and ARPA's Rapid Prototyping Facility at the Virginia Quantico Research Laboratory is producing microminiature electronics systems unique surveillance equipment customized for each separate investigation.

They hope for a 24-hour turnaround for specifically designed devices,including a microphone on a chip. The FBI has already developed a solid-state briefcase-size electronically steerable microphone array prototype, that can discreetly monitor conversations across open areas.

 On the state and local level, jurisdictions such as Washington, D.C., and Redwood City, California, are considering microphone systems first developed to detect submarines.

Placed around the city, they would hear gunshots and call in the location to police headquarters.

Closed Circuit Television Cameras (CCTC). Technical developments have increased the capabilities and lowered the cost of video cameras, making them a regular feature in stores and public areas.

In the UK, dozens of cities have centrally controlled, comprehensive citywide CCTC systems that can track individuals wherever they go, even if they enter buildings. Effective even in extreme low light, the cameras can read a cigarette pack 100 yards away. Baltimore recently announced plans to put 200 cameras in the city center. The FBI has miniaturized CCTC units it can put in a lamp, clock radio, briefcase, duffel bag, purse, picture frame, utility pole, coin telephone, book and other [objects] and then control remotely to pan/tilt, zoom and focus. GRANDMA_BELL
Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR)
Originally developed for use in fighter planes and helicopters to		 locate enemy aircraft, FLIR can detect a temperature differential as small as .18 degrees centigrade. Texas Instruments and others are marketing hand-held and automobile- and helicopter-mounted models that can essentially look through walls to determine activities inside buildings. Law enforcement agents are pointing them at neighborhoods to detect higher temperatures in houses where artificial lights are used to grow marijuana. They are also using FLIR to track people and cars on the Mexican border and search for missing people and fugitives.
Massive millimeter wave detectors.
Developed by Militech Corporation, these detectors use a form of radar to scan beneath clothing.		 By monitoring the millimeter wave portion of the electromagnetic spectrum emitted by the human body, the system can detect items such as guns and drugs from a range of 12 feet or more. It can also look through building walls and detect activity. Militech received a $2 million grant from ARPA's Technology Reinvestment Project to fund development of working systems for local police.
Van Eck Monitoring.
Every computer emits low levels of electromagnetic radiation from the monitor, processor, and attached devices. Although experts disagree whether the actual range is a only a few yards or up to a mile, these signals can be remotely recreated on another computer. Aided by a transmitting device to enhance the signals, the FBI reportedly used Van Eck Monitoring to extract information from spy Aldrich Ames' computer and relay it for analysis.

Intelligent Transportation Systems. ITS refers to a number of traffic management technologies, including crash-avoidance systems, automated toll collection, satellite-based position location, and traffic-based toll pricing. To facilitate these services, the system tracks the movements of all people using public or private transportation. As currently proposed by TRW, a leading developer of the technologies involved, the data collected on travel will be available for both law enforcement and private uses such as direct marketing. Automated toll collection is already in operation in several states, including New York, Florida, and California. Tracking systems for counterintelligence purposes are also already in place in New York City, where the FBI has set up a permanent real time physical tracking system. On a commercial level, insurers are pushing car owners to install the Lojack, which is supposed to help retrieve stolen cars by sending out location signals once the system is remotely activated. Since cellular phones transmit location information to the home system to determine call routing, they can also be used for automated tracking of the caller's movements. In 1993, fugitive Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar was pinpointed through his cellular phone. Currently there is an effort to develop a 911 system for cellular systems that would give location information for every cellular phone.

Digital Cash. Potentially, digital cash will create one of the most comprehensive systems for the collection of information on individuals. Using computer software and smart cards to replace physical cash, consumers can spend virtual money for small transactions such as reading an electronic newspaper online, making phone calls from pay phones, paying electronic tolls, buying groceries, as well as for any transaction currently done through credit cards. Since most of the systems under development (such as the one by Mondex in Canada and the UK), retain information on each transaction, they create an unprecedented amount of information on individual preferences and spending habits. Another system, Digicash, which provides for anonymous online transactions, is offered by the Mark Twain Bank in St. Louis. Federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies have been fighting anonymous digital cash on the grounds that it could be used for money laundering. _END_

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