There's a 50 percent chance police have a photo of your face in a database

Police databases do not only have criminals but also pictures of the general public.

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published 19 October 2016

Police facial-recognition database systems across the U.S. already have the faces of half of American adults on file, a study published Tuesday by researchers at Georgetown University's Center on Privacy and Technology revealed. The researchers found that the collection of photos "is not limited to serious criminals" — or even limited "at all, really."

In total, more than 117 million American adults are already in the law enforcement database. The Atlantic reported that while "some departments only use facial-recognition to confirm the identity of a suspect who's been detained," other departments "continuously analyze footage from surveillance cameras to determine exactly who is walking by at any particular moment." Some facial-recognition networks cross-reference the information with "databases of ID photos such as driver's licenses," Mashable reported.

Moreover, a majority of the states using these databases don't have laws regulating police use of face-recognition technology. "Never before has federal law enforcement created a biometric database — or network of databases — that is primarily made up of law-abiding Americans," the report said, noting that "face recognition, when it's used most aggressively, can change the nature of public spaces."