Volume 7 Issue 41

No Place To Hide: DHS' New HART Database Uses Scars, Tattoos, & Voice ID

These days, you can't really go anywhere without encountering cameras.  Going into a store? Chances are there are security cameras. Getting money at an ATM? More cameras. Driving through the streets of a city? More cameras still. Your neighbors may have those doorbells from Amazon that are surveilling the entire neighborhood. And many of these cameras are tied into facial recognition databases, or the footage can be quite easily compared there if "authorities" are looking for somebody. But as it turns out, it isn't just facial recognition we have to worry about.

DHS has a new recognition system called HART.

Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology system is the alarming new identity system being put in place by the Department of Homeland Security. DHS is retiring its old system that was based on facial recognition. It's being replaced with HART, a cloud-based system that holds information about the identities of hundreds of millions of people. The new cloud-based platform, called the Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology System, or HART, is expected to bring more processing power, new analytics capabilities and increased accuracy to the department's biometrics operations. It will also allow the agency to look beyond the three types of biometric data it uses today--face, iris and fingerprint--to identify people through a variety of other characteristics, like palm prints, scars, tattoos, physical markings and even their voices.  Incidentally, the cloud hosting for HART is being done by none other than Amazon - you know, the ones with surveillance devices like the Ring doorbell and the Alexa home assistant and the Nest home security system. Does anyone see a pattern here? Also note that Amazon Web Services also hosts data for the CIA, the DoD, and NASA.

More about HART

As HART becomes more established, that old saying "you can run but you can't hide" is going to seem ever more true. The DHS is delighted at how much further the new system can take them into surveilling Americans. And by freeing the agency from the limitations of its legacy system, HART could also let officials grow the network of external partners with whom they share biometric data and analytics capabilities, according to Patrick Nemeth, director of identity operations within Homeland Security's Office of Biometric Identity Management. "When we get to HART, we will be better, faster, stronger," Nemeth said in an interview with Nextgov. "We'll be relieved of a lot of the capacity issues that we have now ... and then going forward from there we'll be able to add capabilities." 

The DHS wants to break free of the limitations of the old system with their new and "improved" system. HART will use multiple pieces of biometric data to increase identification accuracy. Today, when an official runs a person's face, fingerprint or iris scans through IDENT's massive database, the system doesn't return a single result. Rather, it assembles a list of dozens of potential candidates with different levels of confidence, which a human analyst must then look through to make a final match. 

The system can only handle one modality at a time, so if agent is hypothetically trying to identify someone using two different datapoints, they need to assess two lists of candidates to find a single match. This isn't a problem if the system identifies the same person as the most likely match for both fingerprint and face, for example, but because biometric identification is still an imperfect science, the results are rarely so clear cut. However, the HART platform can include multiple datapoints in a single query, meaning it will rank potential matches based on all the information that's available. That will not only make it easier for agents to analyze potential matches, but it will also help the agency overcome data quality issues that often plague biometric scans, Nemeth said. If the face image is pristine but the fingerprint is fuzzy, for example, the system will give the higher-quality datapoint more weight.

"We're very hopeful that it will provide better identification surety than we can provide with any single modality today," Nemeth said. And palm prints, scars, tattoos and other modalities are added in the years ahead, the system will be able to integrate those into its matching process. 

HART will also use DNA.

Remember a while back when we reported that DNA sites were teaming up with facial recognition software? Well, HART will take that unholy alliance even further. The phase-two solicitation also lists DNA-matching as a potential application of the HART system. While the department doesn't currently analyze DNA, officials on Wednesday announced they would start adding DNA collected from hundreds of thousands of detained migrants to the FBI's criminal database. 

During the interview, Nemeth said the agency is still working through the legal implications of storing and sharing such sensitive data. It's also unclear whether DNA information would be housed in the HART system or a separate database, he said. Nifty.

The DHS is operating without any type of regulation.

Currently, there's no regulation or oversight of government agencies collecting and using this kind of data. Civil liberty activists and some lawmakers are alarmed by this, citing concerns about privacy and discrimination. This hasn't slowed down the DHS one iota, however. Critics have taken particular issue with the government's tangled web of information sharing agreements, which allow data to spread far beyond the borders of the agency that collected it. The Homeland Security Department currently shares its biometric data and capabilities with numerous groups, including but not limited to the Justice, Defense and State departments.

In the years ahead, HART promises to strengthen those partnerships and allow others to flourish, according to Nemeth. While today the department limits other agencies' access to IDENT to ensure they don't consume too much of its limited computing power, HART will do away with those constraints. 

Mana Azarmi, the policy counsel for the Freedom, Security and Technology Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology is one of those people voicing concern. A person might give information to a single agency thinking it would be used for one specific purpose, but depending on how that information is shared, they could potentially find themselves subjected to unforeseen negative consequences, Azarmi said in a conversation with Nextgov.

"The government gets a lot of leeway to share information," she said. "In this age of incredible data collection, I think we need to rethink some of the rules that are in place and some of the practices that we've allowed to flourish post-9/11. We may have overcorrected."  You think?

Many people voluntarily provide biometric data.

Many folks provide biometric data without giving it a second thought. They cheerfully swab a cheek and send it into sites like Ancestry.com, providing not only their DNA, but matches to many relatives who never gave permission for their DNA to be in a database.

Then there are cell phones. If you have a newer phone, it's entirely possible that it has asked you to set up fingerprint login, facial recognition, and even voice recognition. It isn't a stretch of the imagination to believe that those samples are shared with folks beyond the device in your hand. Add to this that your device is tracking you every place you go through a wide variety of seemingly innocuous apps, and you start to get the picture.

You can't opt-out. Back in 2013, I wrote an article called "The Great American Dragnet".  At that time, facial recognition was something that sounded like science fiction or some kind of joke. Our drivers' licenses were the first foray into creating a database but even in 2013, it far exceeded that.

Another, even larger, database exists. The US State Department has a database with 230 million searchable images.  Anyone with a passport or an immigration visa may find themselves an unwilling participant in this database.   Here's the breakdown of who has a photo database:

- The State Department has about 15 million photos of passport or visa holders

- The FBI has about15 million photos of people who have been arrested or convicted of crimes

- The Department of Defense has about 6 million photos, mainly of Iraqis and Afghans

- Various police agencies and states have at least 210 million driver's license photos

This invasion of privacy is just another facet of the surveillance state, and should be no surprise considering the information Edward Snowden just shared about the over-reaching tentacles of the NSA into all of our communications. We are filing our identities with the government and they can identify us at will, without any requirement for probable cause. Some people don't even seem to mind that their identities have been tagged and filed by the US government. And even those of us who do mind have no option. If you wish to drive a car or travel outside of the country or have any kind of government ID, like it or not, you're in the database. Six years ago, I wrote:

The authorities that use this technology claim that the purpose of it is to make us safer, by helping to prevent identity fraud and to identify criminals.  However, what freedom are we giving up for this "safety" cloaked in benevolence? We are giving up the freedom of having the most elemental form of privacy - that of being able to go about our daily business without being watched and identified. And once you're identified, this connects to all sorts of other personal information that has been compiled: your address, your driving and criminal records, and potentially, whatever else that has been neatly filed away at your friendly neighborhood fusion center.

Think about it:  You're walking the dog and you fail to scoop the poop - if there's a surveillance camera in the area, it would be a simple matter, given the technology, for you to be identified. If you are attending a protest that might be considered "anti-government", don't expect to be anonymous.  A photo of the crowd could easily result in the identification of most of the participants.

Are you purchasing ammo, preparedness items, or books about a controversial topic?  Paying cash won't buy you much in the way of privacy - your purchase will most likely be captured on the CCTV camera at the checkout stand, making you easily identifiable to anyone who might wish to track these kinds of things.  

What if a person with access to this technology uses it for personal, less than ethical reasons, like stalking an attractive women he saw on the street?  The potential for abuse is mind-boggling.

If you can't leave your house without being identified, do you have any real freedom left, or are you just a resident in a very large cage? 

When I wrote that, it still seemed far-fetched but remotely possible, even to me. This was before we were really aware of anything like the social credit program in China or how crazy the censorship was going to become or how social media would change the very fabric of our society.

Now, it's here and it looks like there's no stopping it.

Christian Family in Hiding after Hindu Extremist Mob Assaults Them in India

NEW DELHI, October 3, 2019 (Morning Star News) – A retired pastor, his wife and their sons are in hiding from police after a Hindu extremist mob injured them in a gruesome assault in northern India, sources said.

Patram Mangala, retired Church of North India pastor now helping to run St. John School in Sohna, Gurugram District in Haryana state, sustained injuries to his nose when he was hit with a spade in the face, and his 28-year-old son Abhishek Mangala lost four front teeth and ruptured blood vessels in his eye in the Sept. 22 attack. 

Pastor Mangala’s 65-year-old wife Sarla Mangala sustained an injury under her right eye apart from internal injuries to her body, and their son Raj Kumar Mangala, 40, sustained internal injuries in the attack, which appeared to be rooted in a recent court judgment against the Hindus in their attempt to erect a Hindu idol on the property, the retired pastor said.

The 68-year-old Pastor Mangala and his wife were cleaning their front yard in the early evening when a group of Hindu extremists with wooden sticks surrounded them and began to assault them, he said. Between 30 to 40 other people then joined in the assault.

Pastor Mangala’s sons ran to help their parents but were also attacked. The pastor said he could identify only some of the assailants, and that those who joined in had been notified earlier for a well-planned attack.

“Two men, Anil Kumar and Danny, smashed a stone on Abhishek’s face, breaking four of his front teeth,” Pastor Mangala told Morning Star News. “His mouth was profusely bleeding, and his face was covered with blood. Abhishek’s lip tore, and his left eye blood vessels ruptured.”

Their home is part of the St. John’s school premises, and the assailants picked up a spade used for repair work on the institution in the attack, he said. They also struck them with rocks lying outside the gate, along with sticks.

“They began to hit me with their legs and fists and manhandled my wife by pushing her and hitting her,” he said. “They abused us using vulgar language and threatened to kill us. The attackers snatched the gold ring that I was wearing in my finger and snatched my son Abhishek’s cell phone as well.”

Besides the injury to his nose from the spade, Pastor Mangala sustained injuries to his thigh and other parts of his body, he said.

The family reported the assault to city police in writing on Sept. 24, but officers registered no complaint for nearly a week – in stark contrast to a false complaint registered against the Christians the day of the attack, he said.

“The culprits have been threatening us to kill us, and they have warned us that if we go to the police, they will kill us,” Pastor Mangala reported in his complaint, translated from Hindi. “In the future if I or my family members are attacked, these people named in the complaint should be held responsible. I request that strict action be taken against these hooligans and a First Information Report be registered and they be arrested. I pray that justice be given to me and my family.”

Local news media broadcast the Hindu extremists’ false charges as stated by a police official and the main accused in the pastor’s complaint, Anil Kumar. Officer-in-Charge Arvind Dahiya told Punjab Kesari News Channel that an FIR had been registered against Pastor Mangala, his wife and their two sons for “breaking the Hindu temple and illegally trying to take possession of the Hindu temple land under the Indian Penal Code.”

They were also charged with rioting, being armed with a deadly weapon, unlawful assembly, disobedience to an order lawfully promulgated by a public servant, injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation, he said.

Kumar told media that the Christian family attacked him and the others.

Denying all allegations, Meenal Mangala, the daughter of Pastor Mangala, told Morning Star News that she felt helpless as she does not know who to contact for help.

“The allegations against us are false and fabricated,” she said. “We don't know what to do. It is our property, and we have the papers to prove it. They forcefully wanted to worship their god on our land. Through court we stopped that and won the legal battle, but now they are spreading a false and fabricated story through media, and it is being telecasted on local TV.”

Meenal Mangala said the family has submitted a CD to the police containing footage from CCTV cameras installed at the school facing its front gate. The cameras captured the entire assault and show how the Hindu extremists beat the family, she said.

Fearing arrest, the Christian family has left their home and gone into hiding since being released from the hospital.

Only after Morning Star News spoke to Investigating Officer and Assistant Sub-Inspector Shish Ram asking why no action was taken on the complaint of trespassing and assault filed by the Christian family did officers register a case against the assailants on Friday (Sep. 27).

Ram said a case was registered against the Hindu assailants under First Information Report 608 for rioting, rioting armed with deadly weapon, unlawful assembly, disobedience to an order lawfully promulgated by a public servant, voluntarily causing hurt and criminal intimidation.

He said justice would be done, though no action has been taken yet.

The land on which the St. John’s School was built was purchased in Sarla Mangala’s name on Sept. 30, 1985, according to official records. She and Pastor Mangala were running the school and residence in 2015 when some Hindus trespassed and erected a Hindu idol and brought construction material onto the campus, Sarla Mangala charges in a lawsuit.

“On June 10, 2015, in the evening between 6-6:30, some anti-social elements came to our land and tried to enter forcefully,” Pastor Mangala said. “They threatened to kill my wife if she did not leave the property, hence we filed a complaint in the court claiming that the property is ours and that no construction should be done on that land. I approached the court against the trespassing four years ago and got a stay from the court. The court pronounced judgment in our favor two months ago.”

Tehmina Arora, director of legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom-India, said in a press statement earlier this year that India must enact laws to protect religious minorities from such attacks.

“Nobody should be persecuted because of their faith,” Arora said. “It is worrying to see these horrendous acts of mob violence continue. It is high time special laws are enacted to protect Christians and other religious minorities from being attacked and then imprisoned under false accusations.”

Mob attacks are not isolated incidents in India, added Paul Coleman, executive director of ADF-International.

“While the right to religious freedom is protected by the Indian constitution, we nonetheless see Christians face persecution and denial of their fundamental rights,” he said. “Sadly, the recent mob attacks are not isolated incidents but testify to what many Christians experience in India today. All people have the right to freely choose, and live out, their faith.”

India is ranked 10^th on Christian support organization Open Doors’ 2019 World Watch List of the countries where it is most difficult to be a Christian. The country was 31st in 2013, but its position has been worse each year since Narendra Modi of the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014. 

‘Give Your Life to Christ’ — Brother Forgives, Hugs Ex-Cop Who Killed Botham Jean

The brother of a man shot and killed in his own apartment by a former Dallas police officer shocked the courtroom and sparked a national debate Wednesday by forgiving his brother’s killer and urging her to turn her life to Christ. 

The brother, Brandt Jean, then hugged the officer who had killed Botham Jean. The interaction even brought the judge to tears. 

“I forgive you,” Jean said before urging the former officer to “... Give your life to Christ.”

Amber Guyger was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years in prison for the 2018 fatal shooting of Botham Jean. Guyger had mistakenly entered the wrong apartment and believed he was in her apartment. 

Brandt Jean, who is 18, took the witness stand after the sentencing and addressed Guyger.  

“I don't want to say twice or for the hundredth time ... how much you've taken from us. I think you know that,” Jean said. “But ... I hope you go to God with all the guilt [and] all the bad things you may have done in the past. Each and every one of us may have done something that we're not supposed to do. If you truly are sorry – I know I can speak for myself, I forgive you. And I know if you go to God and ask Him, He will forgive you.”

As he spoke, sobbing could be heard throughout the courtroom. 

“But I love you just like anyone else. And I'm not gonna say I hope you rot and die just like my brother did, but I personally want the best for you,” Jean added. “And I wasn't gonna ever say this in front of my family or anyone, but I don't even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you. Because I know that's exactly what Botham would want you to do. And the best would be [to] give your life to Christ.”

Seconds later, Jean turned to Judge Tammy Kemp and asked, “Can I give her a hug? Please?”

Kemp, wiping away tears, responded, “Yes.”

Jean and Guyger hugged in front of the courtroom for nearly a minute. 

Later, Kemp gave Guyger a Bible. 

Some on social media said Brandt Jean went too far. 

“Why on earth would anyone with a brain hug his brother's murderer?” one person on Twitter asked.

Most people on social media, though, were in awe at the moment. 

“There is hope for the country with young men like this,” one person wrote. “If only there were more.”