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Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

theregister.com

91–100 of 283 posts

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point, at least a third of the country always thinks an authoritarian is in power.

FWIW, I've believed we've had an authoritarian in power for quite a while now. Obama, Trump, Biden, and Bush have all tried and succeeded in expanding executive power. They've all engaged in extrajudicial killings overseas. Nothing sets me off like seeing people think this behavior from Trump doesn't have shared roots across both parties. Biden kept kids in cages. Obama bombed weddings. Yes, the current admin is acce…

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Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#92
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they? They haven't taken mine.

As a US citizen, you likely have your photo in a state or federal database somewhere from getting your ID or driver's license. Depending on your job, background check history, or interactions with the police, your fingerprints might be in a database somewhere. If you fly, your facial image/photograph/video is held by TSA and also as part of the REAL ID program. So there are some biometrics that the government has of…

I guess I wasn't counting my photo ID as biometrics since there's no 3D map of my face to accompany it. I haven't been through an airport in over ten years either so hopefully my biometrics remain out of government databases for now.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they? They haven't taken mine.

The TSA uses facial recognition right now at most US airports. While they claim to not store the pictures, they've "accidentally" stored data many other times they promised not to so consider me skeptical.

I haven't been through an airport in over 10 years, but it was my understanding that you could opt out of the facial scanning stuff? I've asked my wife to do it each time she flies to California, just to see what happens, but she doesn't want to be a nuisance. :\

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#94
post #3

It's weird how many people's perception of this type of behavior is shaped by the person sitting in the White House. EDIT: It's also weird how my comment is being perceived exclusively as criticizing the critics of this administration rather than criticizing the supporters of this overreach. My comment was intentional phrased very generally, if you think it is specifically about you, that reveals something about you.

Wouldn't it be weird if that didn't shape their perception? It's not surprising that people are less trusting when an authoritarian is in power.

> It's not surprising that people are less trusting when an authoritarian is in power.

The majority of Americans don't feel that way, but did about the last administration, and enough to do something about it. What's surprising is, given that revelation, a few people still actually think that.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#95
post #39

You can submit a public comment on the proposal to DHS at the link below: https://www.regulations.gov/document/USCIS-2025-0205-0002/co...

I suspect this government isn’t receptive to commentary from anyone other than only one person. While I’d never discourage anyone from advocating their beliefs this feels like at best a waste of energy. They are going to do it because they decided to do it - the solicitation of comments is performative and required. The only way to stop it is via the courts and by voting next November.

There's even precedent for the current president's agencies compiling some pretty sketchy "comments" in the past due to not doing basic sanity checks on pretty obvious fake comments that happened to support their agenda, like when supposedly seeking input from the public about repealing net neutrality[1]. There were so many duplicates that only thirty 30 unique comments made up 57% of the overall total, and the second most common "name" among the authors was literally "The Internet".

No one in the current administration cares about what random members of the public think about their policies, and that's by design. Even the government positions that are intended to be permanent across administrations aren't a safe bet at this point with was things have been going

[1]: https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2017/11/29/public-comme...

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have they? They haven't taken mine.

> They haven't taken mine If you let have a passport, State has your face.

I don't have one, but even if I did that's only a 2D photo right? I guess when I think biometrics I think of the full on 3D depth maps, vocal signatures, iris recognition, etc. that a phone is doing to tell who's trying to unlock it. Not that I want them to have a plain photo of me either, but that ship has sailed unfortunately.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#99
post #3

It's weird how many people's perception of this type of behavior is shaped by the person sitting in the White House. EDIT: It's also weird how my comment is being perceived exclusively as criticizing the critics of this administration rather than criticizing the supporters of this overreach. My comment was intentional phrased very generally, if you think it is specifically about you, that reveals something about you.

Do you have any evidence that public concern over privacy changes depending on who is in the white house?

A quick search suggests a solid majority has been consistently upset about this issue for decades. The phrasing of the question seems to have more impact than the year, but I cannot find any hard data on consumer privacy concern trends over years.

Such trend data would be useful.

Re: Uncle Sam wants to scan your iris and collect your DNA, citizen or not

#100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At this point, at least a third of the country always thinks an authoritarian is in power.

FWIW, I've believed we've had an authoritarian in power for quite a while now. Obama, Trump, Biden, and Bush have all tried and succeeded in expanding executive power. They've all engaged in extrajudicial killings overseas. Nothing sets me off like seeing people think this behavior from Trump doesn't have shared roots across both parties. Biden kept kids in cages. Obama bombed weddings. Yes, the current admin is acce…

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