“The NGI system is widely used by law enforcement and security authorities to perform biometric background checks and to investigate criminals and other individuals whose biometric data has been collected. Last summer, the FBI announced its plan to exempt the program from privacy provisions allowing individuals to find out whether their records are being held, and invited public comment. Privacy and civil rights groups warned against the move and expressed alarm about the breadth of the FBI’s biometric data collection practices, particularly after the revelation that the FBI had secretly been using facial recognition technology to scan through civilian identity records, including the passport and driver license photos of non-criminals.”
