Got Tattooes? Gov't Could Soon Track You Down
The government is working on ways to identify people by their tattoos.
The National Institute for Standards and Technology hosted a challenge for groups to come up with the most accurate software and algorithms for identifying tattoos.
"The goal of the Tattoo Recognition Technology - Challenge (Tatt-C) is to advance research and development into automated image-based tattoo recognition technology. The challenge focuses on tattoo matching and retrieval from still images captured operationally by law enforcement agencies," the Institute's website said.
A computer scientist told the Washington Post the main reason the government wants the IDs is track down criminals.
But Alvaro Bedoya, executive director of Georgetown Law's Center on Privacy & Technology, questions whether the law has caught up with how image recognition with tattoos could be used.
"People are being identified remotely without their knowledge - and right now the Fourth Amendment doesn't really say anything about that," Bedoya said.