Who should have your fingerprints? Nov02

Who should have your fingerprints?

Josh.Folland: Did you see this article? “Feds Walk Into A Building, Demand Everyone’s Fingerprints To Open Phones.” Katherine.Gorham: Wow. Dystopian much? Josh.Folland: Very. But I was always under the impression the law could compel you to give up your fingerprint. Trevor.Pott: Josh is correct. Josh.Folland: Them storming a building to collect them en masse is mildly frightening. (I use mildly because this sh*t just doesn’t surprise me anymore). Katherine.Gorham: They had a warrant. A super-vague warrant, to be sure, but it wasn’t totally random. Trevor.Pott: I don’t care. They eliminated the presumption of innocence for an entire building’s worth of people.That’s bulls**it. Josh.Folland:  They had a warrant to try to find evidence to get a less-stupid warrant. Katherine.Gorham: I’m not saying it was a good move. Just not a warrantless bad one. Also, what’s the data retention policy on randomly collected fingerprints? Forever? Josh.Folland: I can only imagine it goes in “your file”, yeah. Prosecutors would love if they had every person’s fingerprint forever, no?  As opposed to waiting until they get put into the system. Trevor.Pott: They collected my fingerprints at the airport when I applied for a NEXUS card, and told me they would be retained by both nations, presumably forever. Once they have that info, does anyone expect them to give it up? Katherine.Gorham: No. But I wondered if there was any specific legislation about it. Trevor.Pott: There’s lots of precedent in the UK for Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs) to not delete fingerprints, DNA and more when they are supposed to.  I expect all members of the Five Eyes to carry equal antipathy towards their own citizens. In Canada, we have Bill C-51, which effectively hands our LEAs carte blanche to do anything they want. Katherine.Gorham: I don’t really care if...