Salt Lake Tribune · Jul 7, 2019
FBI, ICE use driver license photos without owners’ knowledge or consent
Washington • Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Immigration and Customs Enforcement have turned state driver license databases into a facial-recognition gold mine, scanning through hundreds of millions of Americans’ photos without their knowledge or consent, newly released documents show.
Thousands of facial-recognition requests, internal documents and emails over the past five years, obtained through public-records requests by Georgetown University researchers and provided to The Washington Post, reveal that federal investigators have turned state Department of Motor Vehicles databases into the bedrock of an unprecedented surveillance infrastructure.