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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday February 08 2017, @05:21PM   Printer-friendly

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The FBI's Rap Back program is quietly transforming the way employers conduct background checks. While routine background checks provide employers with a one-time "snapshot" of their employee's past criminal history, employers enrolled in federal and state Rap Back programs receive ongoing, real-time notifications and updates about their employees' run-ins with law enforcement, including arrests at protests and charges that do not end up in convictions. ("Rap" is an acronym for Record of Arrest and Prosecution; "Back" is short for background.) Testifying before Congress about the program in 2015, FBI Director James Comey explained some limits of regular background checks: "People are clean when they first go in, then they get in trouble five years down the road [and] never tell the daycare about this."

A majority of states already have their own databases that they use for background checks and have accessed in-state Rap Back programs since at least 2007; states and agencies now partnering with the federal government will be entering their data into the FBI's Next Generation Identification (NGI) database. The NGI database, widely considered to be the world's largest biometric database, allows federal and state agencies to search more than 70 million civil fingerprints submitted for background checks alongside over 50 million prints submitted for criminal purposes. In July 2015, Utah became the first state to join the federal Rap Back program. Last April, aviation workers at Dallas-Ft. Worth Airport and Boston Logan International Airport began participating in a federal Rap Back pilot program for aviation employees. Two weeks ago, Texas submitted its first request to the federal criminal Rap Back system.

Rap Back has been advertised by the FBI as an effort to target individuals in "positions of trust," such as those who work with children, the elderly, and the disabled. According to a Rap Back spokesperson, however, there are no formal limits as to "which populations of individuals can be enrolled in the Rap Back Service." Civil liberties advocates fear that under Trump's administration the program will grow with serious consequences for employee privacy, accuracy of records, and fair employment practices.

Rap Back Privacy Impact Assessment

-- submitted from IRC


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  • (Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Thursday February 09 2017, @02:39PM

    by Kromagv0 (1825) on Thursday February 09 2017, @02:39PM (#465001) Homepage

    Do you really think the average gun owner is going to protect the right of Muslims to practice their religion?

    Maybe. I remember that after the election hearing that gun sales were up but not because it was your typical "conservative" types panic buying just in case but because the typical "liberal" types were buying to protect themselves just in case. Depending on if it continues you may see that there would be a large contingent of gun owners who would.
     
    For example one of my cousins' wife decided that she needed a gun, both him and her are huge liberals, after the election. Being the only one in my generation in the family who hunts she came and asked me what kind of gun she should get, the typical question from someone who has no gun experience. My response is always is what do you want it for when I get asked this. After a long discussion about it to get them informed they could at least go and make an informed decision. I pointed them to a local gun shop that has a range and will rent different guns so you can try them. As someone who is a responsible gun owner of several different firearms I also walked them though how to go about getting proper training on handling and using them, how to store them safely and securely (they were shocked that mine are in a huge heavy fireproof safe bolted to the poured concrete basement floor), and just general information. Some other things that seemed surprising to them was that I didn't recommend anything that I own as she was looking for a personal protection weapon and while I have one mine is for protection from things like bears where you want a big powerful round like a .44 mag, .454 casull, or .500 winchester mag which is not what she needed so I recommended something that shoots .38 special and to go try a bunch of different guns that shoot it and find one she is comfortable handling, if she couldn't find one she liked in that caliber I suggested looking at 9mm instead.
     
    Do I think that she would be one of the people out protecting the undesirables with her firearm, maybe. Would I, I don't actually know. Do I think she would take other actions to protect the rights of undesirables, absolutely. Would I, yes absolutely.

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  • (Score: 2) by linkdude64 on Thursday February 09 2017, @08:24PM

    by linkdude64 (5482) on Thursday February 09 2017, @08:24PM (#465231)

    You are an upstanding citizen. Thank you.