A few days back I wrote a diary about how the US is requiring every foreign visitor from a visa waiver country to provide two electronic fingerprints on entering the country.
Well folks, it’s not just foreigners – or even ports of entry any more. It’s coming home to your (or someone’s) local library.
Details below the fold.
Today’s BoingBoing links to the following WaPo article:
Ill. Library Getting Fingerprint Scanners
NAPERVILLE, Ill. — Library officials in this suburb west of Chicago have come up with a high-tech solution for keeping unauthorized visitors from using their computers: fingerprint scans.
The scanners _ to be installed on 130 library computers this summer _ will verify the identity of computer users.
Library officials said they wanted to tighten computer access because many people borrow library cards and pass codes from friends or family to log on. The technology also will help the library implement a new policy that allows parents to put filters on their children’s’ accounts, officials said.
But privacy advocates have criticized the plan, which would make Naperville only the second library system in the nation to use fingerprint-scanning technology, according to the American Library Association.
“We take people’s fingerprints because we think they might be guilty of something, not because they want to use the library,” said Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union in Illinois.
Sorry Ed, not any more.
Using this technology in a library is particularly sensitive in light of current “homeland security” law, which the article summarizes thusly:
Library records have been the focus of a privacy debate ever since Congress passed the Patriot Act shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. A provision of the law authorizes federal officials to obtain “tangible items” like credit card receipts and library records as part of foreign intelligence or international terrorism investigations.
For its part, the library is seeking to play down the effects of the system:
Naperville library officials said the technology cannot be used to reconstruct a person’s actual fingerprint. The scanners, made by Naperville-based U.S. Biometrics Corp., use an algorithm to convert 15 or more specific points into a unique numeric sequence.
…
[Mark] West [the library’s deputy director] said the numeric data cannot be cross-referenced with fingerprint databases kept by the FBI or state police.
Mr. West may be sincere, but he is way off the point. This application is not about imaging fingerprints or finding out which of the library’s patrons are in a federal database – the library patrons have identified themselves sufficiently to be traceable in order to obtain their library cards. It is about reliability identifying what users are online when. From there it is a simple database coding task to link the user with the content she is viewing (note that the individual filtering cited as a reason for implementing this system indicates that a user-by-user content monitoring functionality is already implemented here). This data then becomes part of the records that federal authorities can obtain under the Patriot Act.
While I understand why parents might want to control the content their children can access, the solution the Naperville library is implementing has a lot of potential for recording sensitive personal information.
Keep an eye on your libraries.
And now, it’s time for dinner. Looking forward to all flames and comments.
I’m outraged.
Not much to say except this is just royally fucked up..to me libraries are what I would consider my church…I can’t even compose a coherent response right now.
Our local libraries (in PA) had to cut their hours last year because the funding for them has been cut so dramatically. Now they’re going to be expected to spend money on fingerprint scanners to help persecute people for wanting to read and learn?
Good question CabinGirl, then again there always seems to be funding for war and other nefarious activities doesn’t there.
Last summer, we had to curtail our library schedule because it was closed Sundays, and open shorter hours on other days. There’s also been fewer new books in the new release section.
More of the war on the poor and middle class.
and pay cash, as opposed to checking them out of a library or purchasing them online.
Mass market popular fiction, books on gardening, home decorating or pet care are probably safe bets for lower income readers who lack the funds to purchase books, but it’s a good idea to be very careful what one is seen reading.
This is such a sad commentary on what is happening in the US that not only are we told to be careful what we say(per Ari Fleisher) but actually have to think about what we are checking out in a library and how it might look-or what list it might show up on.
I was thinking about the comment I posted the other day about the FBI showing up on my doorstep and this diary on libraries reminded me that I had checked out several books on Islam and the Koran itself to study shortly after 9/11….hmmmmmmm(and also have links to saved information on Arab culture etc on the computer).
“People lost their lives. People are dead. And that’s unfortunate. And people need to be very careful about what they say, just as people need to be careful about what they do,” -Donald Rumsfeld
http://www.aclu.org/spyfiles/ Here’s a short 6 question quiz from the ACLU designed by your answers to let you know if you just might be on one of the FBI watch lists.
Well, I certainly won’t be using FedEx anymore! That is just downright maddening.
Yeah, this we can do but we still can’t get reliable vote-counting machines. This whole thing is suspect.
I haven’t worried too much about the fingerprint stuff because years ago I was fingerprinted as part of my job in the financial sector. I assume that policy is still in place. So if, as Arlo sang, “somewhere in Washington enshrined in some little folder, is a study in black and white of my fingerprints,” there ain’t a lot I can do about it.
But using it for libraries? My local librarian has let people know that records of patrons’ borrowings are no longer kept. And it’s a blissfully low-tech library.
However, people are (I hope) waking up. A friend just sent me an article about an independent bookseller who says he will not help government spy on customers, would even go to jail if need be. And in a small town in Massachusetts, an anti-Patriot Act resolution put on this year’s warrent for the town meeting originated in–get this–the local retirement village!
Nevertheless, I have just added to my to-do list: Cancel FedEx account.
Yes that fingerprinting policy is still in place, although there’s no ink involved. It’s actually kinda cool; you place your finger on the little surface and a computer scans your finger.