A group of US civil organisations has asked Congress to organise an oversight hearing on the FBI's biometric database, citing an FBI proposal to exempt the “Next Generation Identification” database from Privacy Act safeguards.Signed by groups including the American Civil Liberties Union and Amnesty International USA, the coalition statement writes that hearings are necessary to assess the privacy, civil liberties, and human right issues raised by NGI.”The collection of biometric data on millions of people gives law enforcement the ability to identify individuals without probable cause, reasonable suspicion, or any other legal standard that might otherwise be required for law enforcement to obtain traditional identification. Through the use of biometric identifiers like facial recognition, law enforcement can covertly and remotely identify people on a mass scale.”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.”Meanwhile, a report released last week on the FBI's face-recognition system 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 by the Government Accountability Office, 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.”Without conducting audits to determine whether users are conducting face image searches in accordance with CJIS [Criminal Justice Information Services Division] policy requirements, FBI officials cannot be sure they are implementing face recognition capabilities in a manner that protects individuals' privacy”.The NGO coalition refers to the GAO report in its statement, writing: “A recent GAO report determined that the 'FBI has not completed audits to oversee the use of NGI-IPS or FACE services.' The GAO report concluded that 'without conducting audits to determine whether users are conducting face image searches in accordance with CJIS policy requirements, FBI officials cannot be sure they are implementing face recognition capabilities in a manner that protects individuals' privacy'.”

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