According to www.aclu.org (American Civil Liberties Union), we are just a few minutes before the midnight and on its best course to become the surveillance society.

FBI just announced a $1 billion initiave to build the largest database of peoples’ physical characteristics in the world. The current fingerprint database (IAFIS) will be replaced with the Next Generation Identification (NGI) system, capable of presenting people search results in the real-time. Eventually, the system will not only compare palm prints, but also iris images, face-shape data such as the shape of an earlobe, walking stride and even speech patterns.

The Department of Homeland Security has already been using iris scans at selected airports to identify travelers who have passed background checks allowing them to move through security lines quicker. DHS stores millions of fingerprint records, including data collected from U.S. and foreign travelers stopped at borders for criminal violations, from U.S. citizens adopting children overseas, and from visa applicants abroad, as well as all foreign visitors travelling to the U.S.

Currently, 0.3% of the U.S. population (900,000 law enforcement officers) has access to the existing FBI’s fingerprint database. The database provides response to about 100 000 inquiries a day.

FBI plans to expand that privilege to a variety of federal, state and local agencies in the name of keeping America safe from terrorism. According to ars technica, the agency also intends to retain (upon employer request) the fingerprints of any employee who has undergone a criminal background check, and will inform the employer if the employee is ever arrested or charged with a crime.