Salon.com > Siddhartha Mahanta http://www.salon.com Sun, 19 May 2013 01:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Privacy concerns grow over FBI data gathering http://www.salon.com/2012/10/27/privacy_concerns_over_fbi_data_gathering/ http://www.salon.com/2012/10/27/privacy_concerns_over_fbi_data_gathering/#comments Sat, 27 Oct 2012 11:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13054261 The American Independent In July, Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., opened a Senate hearing on the privacy and civil liberties implications of facial-recognition technology by affirming some incontrovertible facts. “You can change your password. You can get a new credit card. But you can’t change your fingerprint, and you can’t change your face,” Franken said. “Unless, I guess, you go to a great, you know, deal of trouble.”

Franken was expressing concerns about the Next Generation Identification system, a database the FBI has been steadily building over the past several years that harnesses the data-gathering power of an emerging slew of forensic technologies. When fully deployed, NGI will allow the bureau to integrate a vast array of forensic data culled from local and state law enforcement agencies, including fingerprints, palm prints, scar and tattoo records, and facial photos. Multiple reports peg the cost of the facial-recognition software upgrade alone at $1 billion.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/10/27/privacy_concerns_over_fbi_data_gathering/feed/ 3 Va. to decide on privatizing sex offender program http://www.salon.com/2012/06/26/va_to_decide_on_privatizing_sex_offender_program/ http://www.salon.com/2012/06/26/va_to_decide_on_privatizing_sex_offender_program/#comments Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12945553 The nation’s second-largest private prison company says it expects Virginia to make a decision by next month on its bid to expand and operate the state’s detention facility for sexually violent predators who have completed their prison terms.

The American Independent

“In Virginia, we submitted an unsolicited proposal for the management of the state’s sexually violent predator treatment facility involving approximately 250 beds,” said GEO Group Senior Vice President Jorge Dominicis during a company earnings call last month. “The state has decided to move forward with this process and is expected to make a contract award by July 1st of this year.”

The detention and treatment of sex offenders represents a growing business opportunity for GEO and its competitors, who hope to score lucrative contracts from state officials looking to keep predators off the streets.

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