A civil society organisation representing Asian-Americans has complained that the FBI's biometric database disproportionately includes their community and that it should be covered by provisions of the federal Privacy Act, Asian-American advocacy groups said Wednesday.In its statement, 11 Asian-American groups asked the Justice Department to tighten its regulation of the Next Generation Identification.”The most marginalized members of our communities – non-citizens, Muslim Americans, LGBTQ Asian Americans – are most impacted by the FBI's biometrics system,” Mark Tseng Putterman, media justice campaigner for 18 Million Rising (18MR), one of the 11 Asian-American. “We need to be concerned about this issue and speak out for the millions it will impact.”The July 6 letter to the Justice Department, also signed by 18MR, expresses concerns over what it calls an over-enrollment of immigrants in the FBI database and “potential inaccuracies in facial recognition technology and bias in its implementation.” Among those joining the letter were Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Chinese Progressive Association - San Francisco, and South Asian Americans Leading Together.”The Privacy Act was enacted to ensure that individuals have the right to know the records the government keeps about their activities,” the letter reads. “The FBI's exemption request would render [Next Generation Identification] effectively secret, denying Americans the right to know what information the FBI is storing on them and the ability to correct inaccurate information.”The group's request follows an attempt by the FBI to exempt NGI from a new Privacy Act due to national security concerns. The proposed Privacy Act exemption is needed “to prevent interference with the FBI's mission to detect, deter and prosecute crimes and to protect the national security,” according to a Justice Department notice that appeared recently in the Federal Register. FBI and Justice Department officials noted this week that law enforcement agencies may claim exemptions for records “compiled for the purpose of identifying criminals and for conducting criminal investigations.”A report released on the FBI's face-recognition system by the Government Accountability Office in early July also said the agency needs to better ensure that face recognition capabilities are accurate enough and that they are being used in accordance with privacy protection laws and policy requirements protection.The report, entitled “FBI Should Better Ensure Privacy and Accuracy”, said that greater transparency needs to be shown by the FBI in its use of face recognition technology
Asian-American coalition calls for more oversight of FBI biometric database
