Police State: France Going Full BioMetric ID's & Facial Recognition Cameras
On October 30, the French government announced, as quietly as possible, the creation of a massive new database that will collect and store personal information and biometric data on nearly everyone living in the country. As tends to happen whenever a government seeks to enact this type of “reforms,” the law wasn’t passed by parliament but by decree on the eve of a national holiday.
As France 24 reports, the new decree will affect 60 million people and “marks the first time the country has collected population data on such a scale since the start of the Nazi Occupation in 1940.”
“Unacceptable Excesses”
The move has sparked outrage from civil rights groups as well as French media, with weekly magazine L’Observateur describing it as “terrifying,” and daily newspaper Libération dubbing it a “mega database that will do no good”. The National Digital Council (CNNum) “laments” the government’s lack of prior consultation and highlights the “many concerns” the new decree raises. “In a digital world where code is law, the existence of such a database leaves the door wide open to likely and unacceptable excesses,” it said.
The new database, known rather optimistically as Secure Electronic Documents (Titres électroniques sécurisés or TES) will store an individual’s name, date and place of birth, gender, eye color, height, address, photograph, digitized fingerprints, facial features, e-mail address, and the names, nationalities, dates and places of birth of parents. The aim — according to the government — is to make it easier to obtain and renew identity documents, and to aid in the fight against identity fraud.
Unlike a similar law proposed by Nicholas Sarkozy’s conservative government in 2012, which was shot down, the new database will only be used to authenticate individuals, not to identify them. In other words, it will be used to confirm that someone is who he or she claims to be, not to discover, say, the identity of someone whose biometrics have been found at the scene of a crime.
However, the potential for mission creep cannot be discounted. As an article in NextInpact points out, once the database exists, it is highly likely that there will be calls for it to be used for identification purposes, simply “because it is there.” There’s also good reason to suspect that a future government “will modify the aims,” as warns Gaëtan Gorce, a French senator and member of the National Commission for Information Technology and Civil Liberties (Cnil) who likened the TES to a “sort of monster.”
According to today’s government, the biometric data stored on the database could be used to identify criminal suspects only if “violations of the fundamental interests of the Nation and acts of terrorism” are involved. But who gets to decide what constitutes a “fundamental interest of the Nation” or, for that matter, “an act of terrorism”? [That was a rhetorical question, of course].
A Hacker’s Paradise
Another major problem with centralizing biometric data to this extent is that you make it a lot easier for it to be compromised. What’s to stop an insider from copying this data onto a drive and walking out with it, as Snowden and others have, including those who took Swiss banking data to the French and German authorities for money laundering investigations? This data would then most likely be sold online, on the so-called darknet.
“No computer system is impenetrable. All databases can be hacked. It’s always just a matter of time,” thundered French left-wing politician Jean-Jacques Urvoas in a 2012 blog post against Sarkozy’s proposed biometrics super database. Urvoas is now justice minister in Hollande’s government and hence is directly involved in drawing up the new decree, which bears a striking resemblance to Sarkozy’s earlier initiative.
If biometric data is compromised, it is a far more serious issue than a compromised password or an account. You can create a new password many times. But you can create your biometrics only once. If they’re compromised, they remain compromised forever.
There’s still a possibility that France’s constitutional council will throw the new law out, as it did with Sarkozy’s. If it doesn’t, TES risks establishing a very dangerous precedent.
Until now the most extensive biometric data retention schemes have been rolled out (perfected?) in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan. Israel is also on the verge of creating its own centralized biometric database. But if TES were allowed to stand, France would become the first G7 nation to attempt to build a completely centralized, all-inclusive biometric database. And that would send a very clear signal — i.e. green for go — to other ostensibly democratic nations.
There’s also the fact that after Germany, France is the country with the most influence over the future direction of EU policy. The EU already has a biometrics super database called the Visa Information System (VIS), which is the largest shared database on maintaining public security, supporting police and judicial cooperation, and managing external border control in Europe.
If the elected representatives of the 66 million people of France can pass into law a completely centralized system of biometric data storage with absolutely no public consultation whatsoever, what’s to stop the European Commission’s ranks of faceless, unelected, power-hungry appointees from doing the same? Nothing.
Besides aspiring to becoming a pioneer in the collection and use of personal data of all its citizens, France’s government is also one of the most ruthless combatants in the global war on cash, which is progressing on schedule. The Alliance is in place. Read… Who’s Powering the War on Cash?
Police facial recognition cameras track our every movement
Soon, just about everywhere you go, police will be using facial recognition cameras to track your every movement. Police facial recognition cameras are being used on bridges, tunnels and CCTV cameras to name a few.
Cops use facial recognition cameras on bridges, tunnels, airports and transit hubs
"New
York [City] is increasingly a target of threats to security. In
recognition of this threat, the New York Crossings Project will
integrate emerging technologies into the security design of bridges and
tunnels across the state, deploying additional personnel and equipment.
At each crossing, and at structurally sensitive points on bridges and
tunnels, advanced cameras and sensors will be installed to read license
plates and test emerging facial recognition software and equipment.
These technologies will be applied across airports and transit hubs –
including the Penn-Farley Complex – to ultimately develop one
system-wide plan."Fyi, New York has switched to the new Pay-By-Plate surveillance system. (Click here & here to find out more)
Anti-Terrorism cops, State Police and the National Guard are spying on everyone
"Anti-terrorism teams will be combined with traffic enforcement at crossings and will develop new operating protocols across agencies. Approximately 525 TBTA officers will provide security and traffic management at bridges and tunnels and will collaborate with State Police on toll enforcement; 150 members of State Police Troop NYC will be assigned at crossings to handle security and anti-terror activities; and 150 National Guardsmen will reinforce troopers on security and anti-terror initiatives. Special barricade trucks will be positioned at both ends of each crossing to serve as intercept vehicles and mobile barriers in the event of an emergency." (TBTA stands for the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority Police.)
How is this possible? Anti-Terrorism cops, State Police and the National Guard spying on everyone, what's next Anti-Government Police?
As I mentioned last week, don't believe all the BS about terrorism, we're living in the safest time in history!
"All of these emotions, especially fear, whip people up into a state of alarm and they become angry and almost evangelical about what they believe. "It's like a disease infecting millions of people around the country" filmmaker Jen Senko said.
According to the FBI, violent crime in America is at 1970's level's.
The fact is, since 1993 violent crime in America has dropped EVERY YEAR! (Click here to find out more)
The future of policing: Facial recognition in every police vehicle
Nearly, eight years have passed, since the Los Angeles Police Department first tested the Pontiac G8 Commodore police vehicle. What makes the G8 so special, it came equipped with facial recognition software! In 2013, the NYPD began testing a "smart" police vehicle that might include fingerprint readers and facial recognition. And in 2014, police in Kissimmee, Florida tested the "Ekin" patrol car which also comes equipped with facial recognition.
Are you beginning to see a pattern?
"Ekin" is based in Turkey and they boast about being, "the first and only smart patrol of the world that performs number plate recognition, face recognition, and speed and parking violation detection on the move."
Imagine a future where your license plate and face are instantly identified. That's the future of American policing. (Click here & here to find out more)
"Ekin" claims they can identify peoples faces while the vehicle is moving. "Detection and analysis of faces in the field of view and recognition over digital matching." The "Ekin" patrol vehicle has a 360-degree view.
It won't be long, before every police vehicle has facial recognition. Below, is a list of police vehicles available in America:
A recent study called, "The Perpetual Line-Up; Unregulated facial Recognition in America" warns, that 1/2 of all Americans faces are entered into a facial recognition database. The report also warns, that over 117 million Americans faces are entered into the database.
"One in two American adults is in a law enforcement face recognition network."
Police will know who you are and where you're going in real-time
In the not too distant future, police will know exactly who you are and where you've been. And they'll know whether you're headed to work, the grocery store or the movies.This is the future of living in Police State America. It's also, what Ekin's "Red Eagle" operating system can do...
- Identifies people in real-time
- Identifies people based on gender, age and can identify specific groups of people
- Searches for people based on gender, age and groups around the city
- Detects whether a person is or has been in a specific area
- Searches for a specific person using every CCTV camera in a city
- Compares everyone's face in a database
- Sends alarms for wanted people
Police use facial recognition with live CCTV camera feeds
Earlier this year, I warned everyone that police are using
thousands of public and private CCTV cameras to spy on everything we do.
Click here to read my four-part series exposing how police are creating a giant facial recognition database on everyone.
Cops admit facial recognition cameras will be in every vehicle
Former police officer Christopher Hawk, reveals the real reason why facial recognition software isn't in every vehicle."If and when in-car facial recognition systems become reliable and affordable enough to be put into squad cars he said."
Is this the America you want, where everyone's afraid and thinks potential terrorists or extremists could be outside their front door?
Perhaps, DHS should adopt a new slogan, "Keeping Americans in Fear, Its What We Do."
