Legal Features

Biometric Database: Read TRI's Comment to the DOJ

Warning against efforts by the FBI and Justice Department to acquire near-limitless power and control over biometric information collected on law-abiding individuals, millions of whom have never been accused of a crime, The Rutherford Institute has denounced an attempt to exempt the government’s massive biometric database from a federal law aimed at protecting Americans’ privacy.

In a comment submitted to the Department of Justice in response to the agency’s attempt to exempt the Next Generation Information Database (NGID) from the Privacy Act, John W. Whitehead, president of The Rutherford Institute, points out that exempting the NGID from the Privacy Act, which is meant to prevent the misuse of records the federal government keeps on individuals by giving them the right to examine those records, severely undermines the Act and could leave citizens without any possible means of recourse should their privacy rights be violated.

Click here to read The Rutherford Institute's comment on the DOJ's proposed rule.