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StumbleSun editorial:
ID thief’s worst enemy
Powerful software at DMV spots many suspects, but also poses a privacy issue
Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2009 | 2:05 a.m.
Identity thieves often use computer software to make other people’s lives miserable through acts of fraud, so it is only just that their lives are being made equally miserable through a software program installed at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
The DMV’s facial-recognition software is loaded with photos of those who have posed over the years for their picture-ID driver’s licenses. New license photos are compared each day with that database. If there is a match, there is a strong possibility that an applicant is trying to get a fake license.
Las Vegas Sun reporter Abigail Goldman recently visited the DMV building on West Flamingo Road, where she interviewed investigators working to identify people suspected of attempting to get a driver’s license in someone else’s name. The facial-recognition software is one of their best tools.
She learned that since January investigators have arrested 84 people on identity theft and fraud charges, that they have 88 additional arrest warrants out and that dozens of open cases are in some stage of investigation.
Goldman also reported that law enforcement agencies sometimes use the DMV’s facial-recognition system to help identify criminal suspects from photos, oftentimes surveillance photos from crime scenes.
But privacy advocates are concerned that police agencies could use this technology in the wrong way. One hypothesis they have imagined is that people in a crowd at a political rally could be photographed by police.
Would DMVs in any of the 30-plus states where facial-recognition software has been installed allow the technology to be used to identify people who are not clear suspects in a crime?
At the Nevada DMV, policy prohibits private sector use of the technology and stipulates that any request to scan a nondepartmental photo must come from a sworn police officer who is investigating a specific case.
We support the DMV’s own use of this technology. But the privacy advocates have a point. This is very powerful technology whose use should be governed by more than DMV policy. As technology changes, so should laws. Congress should decide the circumstances under which anyone outside the DMV can use this technology without first obtaining a warrant.
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I think it is funny.
On the same day, in one editorial they are pushing for illegals rights and in this one they are talking about ID fraud.
Almost every single illegal is committing some act of ID fraud by either making up identifications or stealing (either by concidence or on purpose) somebodyelse's ID information like SSN.
The Sun needs to gets its act on the same page.
I am sure that the Sun would be pissed off if they knew that this will caused less illegals trying to get driver licenses. In turn, that means they might not jobs. In turn, that means they will go home. In turn, that weakens the present and future voting power of the Democratic Party.
OMG!!!!!!.....the Sun is pushing for a policy that will weaken the power of the Democratic Party.
Has hell frozen over?????????
"Congress should decide the circumstances under which anyone outside the DMV can use this technology without first obtaining a warrant."
You got this one mostly right, Sun. I've got to ask what "any request to scan a nondepartmental photo" means? What photos does DMV take are "nondepartmental"?
And why do you think Congress has any jurisdiction over a state agency issuing licenses to state residents? Or have you just implied endorsing the feds' grab for centralized power over the states?
No, don't tell me that there is a "feds' grab for centralized power over the states."
Sounds like DHS/FEMA...
Every state & territory in the US should have this technology and they should all be linked to each other and the DoS (passports/visas), FBI, and DHS (ICE). Every license, govt ID or passport/visa should be run through the system before being issued (and a valid ID required for employment in this country). And everyone entering this country should have their photo & ID info entered into the system. The POTENTIAL threat posed by a govt with this resource is far less than the EXISTING threat posed by criminals, illegals & terrorists.
NLV-Indep13 -- apparently you don't grasp even the basics about how our individual privacy is a protected (and for some of us, still a cherished) liberty. What part of the promise each of us is secure in our persons, property and "papers" from unreasonable search and seizure are you not clear on?
Ask Brandon Mayfield how he was protected by all this technology.
KillerB -- I guess you won't want the microchip implant with GPS tracker add-on then? Actually, I just don't consider everyone having a valid & verifiable ID to be an infringement on my liberties nor an invasion of my right to privacy. More a matter of common sense. You need one to drive, to travel outside the US, to work (SSN), and I think you should need one to vote. And by simply connecting the databases, there'd be a whole lot less opportunity for the nefarious to sneak through the cracks undetected. In the long run, I think me & mine would be better served and our rights better defended having an inter-connected system than by not having one.
NLV-Indep13 -- opinions vary, and the fact that yout choice is to give up your privacy should not diminish my choice of the opposite. My problem with it is the blatant unConstituionality and coercion involved.