The article says the feds 547 million foto archive has had some successes. This writer throws this out this tidbit about facial “uniqueness.” Hope the feds have your portrait quality snaps. Some testing, however, indicates the fed system has a 20% error rate.
“Just as no two people have the same fingerprints, no two people have the same face. The technology essentially measures minute distances in a person’s face and logs the information. While these methods are still in their infancy, FBI officials say biometric technologies could help law enforcement locate and identify a suspect using surveillance videos, mug shots — or even photos taken from Facebook and Twitter.”
Concerns about this are clearly described:
the Globe noted: “Some of those people are guilty of nothing more than looking like someone else.”