Maybe Ohio Shouldn't Let 30,000 People Browse the Facial Recognition Database, Says Advisory Panel

FBI

After Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine quietly added a facial recognition capability to the Ohio Law Enforcement Gateway, which gives government officials unified access to databases for their browsing pleasure, state residents became a tad creeped out that they'd been conscripted into an ongoing police line-up. As a result, DeWine hastily called together an advisory group to tell him what he should do about his somewhat controversial adoption of intrusive technology. Maybe you shouldn't let half the friggin' world go trawling through the photos, his picked advisors told him, and you should keep an eye on the people who do use it.

Well…Words to that effect, anyway.

Wrote the members of the OHLEG Advisory Group (PDF):

(1) General OHLEG Access: The current project to tailor OHLEG access as determined by the chief executive officer of an organization should continue. OHLEG users should only access the information they need for their job responsibilities. This includes access to information gained through facial recognition searches. Guidelines and procedures for immediately removing access and for reporting to OHLEG when an individual user is terminated, retires, or otherwise becomes ineligible to access OHLEG have been developed and should be implemented as soon as possible.

(2) Facial Recognition: Although the general OHLEG access recommendation above is sufficient for law enforcement agencies, non?law enforcement agencies require stricter access to this technology. Non?law enforcement agencies should not have access to OHLEG facial recognition technology without the express written permission of the Superintendent of the Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI).

Errr…Yeah. Those seem like good ideas. You mean these controls aren't in place already? Because implementing "guidelines and procedures for immediately removing access and for reporting to OHLEG when an individual user is terminated, retires, or otherwise becomes ineligible to access OHLEG" and otherwise limiting access to databases hooked up to facial recognition software would seem to be a good idea for a controlling use of an rather intrusive information system that wasn't originally intended as a stand-in for Ashley Madison (Ohio has been relatively scandal free, but Minnesota is awash in controversy over the misuse of its databases by police and other government employees).

The recommendations also include "random audits" of users to ensure compliance with Ohio law and OHLEG policies.

The recommendations don't mention this point, but the Cincinnati Enquirer reported last month that upwards of 30,000 people have access to OHLEG and the new facial recognition capability. By contrast, neighboring Kentucky allows 34 people the ability to run facial recognition searches. The need to somewhat constrain that sort of wide access has been a driving force behind the advisory group's work.

Comments

[Cytotoxic]

Shamelessly OT: Bloomberg Business admits that yes people are losing insurance coverage under the ACA but it's nothing to worry about-aside from causing inconvenience to God-Emperor Obama-because

Beyond the politics, though, insurers are being forced to replace skimpy coverage with more robust health plans. These will cost some people more, but the law also helps those with modest incomes pay for them. Obamacare's market reforms keep insurers from turning people with preexisting conditions away, so those people whose plans are terminated are guaranteed to be able to buy new coverage. It's one more difficult step in the messy process of changing the health-care system.

The next few weeks are going to be a great time for sounding out media bias.

[Ghetto Slovak Goatherder]

These people are evil. Look at them rationalize the theft and direct harm they're causing to hardworking and well-intentioned citizens.

This is one facet of a broader issue our country is facing. The transfer of responsibility from the individual to the government can only happen on the backs of those ultra-individualists, who toil and sacrifice to provide for the ghastly progressive left and the authoritarian right. They're phantoms which wander aimlessly gnashing their teeth, moaning and being completely unaware of their own existence. Those that are actually living are being suffocated under the irrational. They're being bound and made into slaves.

It's like Atlas Shrugged playing out in real time.

[JeremyR]

Except, it's not being transferred to the government.

It's being transferred to the insurance companies.

[Ghetto Slovak Goatherder]

Perhaps in a sense. But the government is taking it upon itself to force the irresponsible to purchase health insurance. Right now it's from private companies. This program will fail and then we'll get single payer.

[The Rt. Hon. Serious Man, Visc]

I kind of like it. The mask has come flying off and people can now see the ugly face of progressivism for what it is: you're too goddamned stupid to make decisions for yourself, so we're going to make them for you.

And they are deluded enough to think themselves the savior of mankind and the party of righteousness. It's madness.

[Bill]

Wait till you see the starvation and mass murder the rest of their policies will eventually result in. You're gonna love that!!

[Rich]

Every pogrom, er, *program* has start-up glitches.

[MJGreen]

Of course they're the party of righteousness. They're just trying to help you!!

[Tman]

Errr...Yeah. Those seem like good ideas. You mean these controls aren't in place already?

Of course they are! Top. Men. And all that.

"Now, can you verify your SS# and medical history for me? It's just for tax purposes and so we can check to see if you are eligible for a subsidy. Thanks!"

'The problem is they may have to redesign the entire system. The way the system is designed, it is not secure'

People have no idea how much worse things will have to get before they get better. I hate sounding like Mark Steyn, but for chrissakes, Chris Mathews is starting to wonder what happened in Benghazi.

We are fucked.

[Cytotoxic]

I think another 2008 crash but much worse is coming and will be an opportunity for political reset. We need a powerful 'Top Man' on our side, like Rand Paul in the wake of financialocolypse. I don't what could go wrong with my plan.

[Tman]

It's funny because we were talking about Red Son tonight at the bar, and how things would play out today.

Imagine if socialism had Super Man!

Yeah, but it doesn't and so here we go learning the lesson all over again.

[Finrod]

When you have a system that's insecure by design, the only way to fix it is to redesign it to be secure and replace the whole system. Back in the day, people didn't try to hack proper cryptography into rsh, they wrote ssh instead.

[Bill]

Also OT,

But you should see the effect all the Federal rules
are having on higher education. Not sure how much
of this is 100% mandated by law with penalties and how
much is due to overzealous progressives hired by the
university who have nothing else to do in their job but
hassle other people.

Our university is in serious financial trouble and we now
have multiple lawyers and federal compliance offers we
never had before. We have to have mandatory "discrimination"
seminars every few years. Have to post syllabii online 9
months in advance and the syllabii are now "legal contracts"
with the student rather than just a course planning document.
Impossible to fire anyone and the first item on the lawyer's
check-list is "does employee belong to any protected class".

I'm hoping at least a few of the lawyers and bureacrats are
fired along with everyone else this Spring as we need to
have a 25% cutback in expenses.