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posted by Fnord666 on Friday August 16 2019, @02:03PM   Printer-friendly
from the what-privacy? dept.

Submitted via IRC for Bytram

Ohio state's top legal eagle just made it harder for the FBI, ICE, cops to snoop around its DMV DB for people's faces

The Attorney General of Ohio has banned cops and the Feds from accessing the US state's database of drivers' license plates and faces until the officers and g-men receive adequate privacy compliance training.

"I share the privacy and civil-liberty concerns of those who fear misuse of this powerful identification technology," said the Buckeye State's AG Dave Yost this week.

"Ohio's database is protected by limited access, regular auditing and strict rules about the kind of searches that can be conducted. That applies to state and local law enforcement as well as federal law enforcement."

Yost conducted a 30-day probe after internal documents and emails from federal and local agencies, obtained by eggheads at Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy and Technology and shared with the Washington Post last month, revealed that the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), among other agencies, have freely searched Ohio's DMV database for license plates to retrieve drivers' faces.

The crime-fighters were searching not just for suspects but also witnesses, victims, and other folks. All of this was conducted without the explicit consent from millions of Americans, and at least some without any warrants: the Feds and plod just had to ask DMV officials nicely in many cases. Yost's investigation found that a total of 11,070 searches by law enforcement had been made since 2017. Out of these searches, 418 were conducted by federal agencies. The vast majority – 10,652 – were made by state police.

Any requests to access to Ohio's DMV databases, which currently contains 24 million images, will now have to go through its Bureau of Criminal Identification (BCI). Staff members will directly handle the searches.


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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @08:11PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 16 2019, @08:11PM (#881259)

    "In order to receive federal funding otherwise eligible for, States shall make their livestock databases directly searchable by state, local and federal officers charged with public safety functions"

    Watch for how long they will keep up the "reeesistance".