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Using a belt sander to foil biometric fingerprints
- Luc 16y agoIt's a really funny, whimsical thing to do, but how will this help you to increase your privacy? Next time you enter the US your finger prints won't match the data on your passport, right?
- sudont 16y agoSome of us haven't gotten passports, or been fingerprinted yet. This may be analogous Schmidt's child/adult quip.
- DanI-S 16y agoThey'll also be a perfect match to the last nutjob who filed off his own fingerprints before mailing letterbombs to the IRS. It probably only increases your chance of being detained, probed and investigated. Unless you file off your face, they can still tell who you are. Rather than adapting your body to quietly live within the 'instruments of control', why not actively campaign against them?
- adrianN 16y agoWhy not do both?
- Luc 16y agoDoh, I just realize Jacques won't be replying, since he retired from HN last week...
- famousactress 16y agoIt is estimated that 1 in 50 people do not have prints or prints clear enough to be registered by the fingerprint readers currently in use. Really!?
- te_platt 16y agoI don't know just how accurate the 1 in 50 number is but it is pretty close to my observations. I worked on a fingerprint recognition system several years ago and collected many thousands of live fingerprints and processed hundreds of thousands of other records (scans of inked prints for example). Recognizing a good quality print is almost trivially easy. Most of the work is pulling good information out of low quality images. Fingerprints are a reliable source of information in most cases for most people but are a far cry perfect form of identification most people think.
- bhousel 16y agoSo tell us.. Wouldn't being "that guy with no fingerprints" be a more clear identifier, and draw more attention to yourself, than just having the same boring blurry imperfect fingerprints that the rest of us have? If the goal is to increase your privacy, walking around with sanded off fingerprints sounds about as contrary to that goal as walking around with one of those fake eyeglass-nose-mustache disguises.
- JonnieCache 16y agoIt would seem best to sand your fingerprints to the point where they still produce an image, but one that is too low quality to stand up in court, yet is still within the 'normal' bounds and won't arouse suspicion.
- madmoose 16y agoCeramists and brick layers often have vague or worn-off fingerprints. Just say you do a lot of ceramics.
- pbhjpbhj 16y agoI came to mention that I do some ceramics and hadn't thought about losing fingerprints before but definitely have pretty smooth fingers now. Using grogged clay to throw with can be torture on your hands if you're not used to it. Like someone mentioned I imagine the prints can be gathered directly by a photographic imaging method - my fingertips are smooth but they still have visual fingerprint patterning. Perhaps if I'm throwing more regularly that would go?
- JonnieCache 16y agoIf you're feeling brave, microwave your passport for good measure.
- imajes 16y agoAccording to most official documents, any passport which has a faulty rfid will be assumed tampered with, and will become invalid. So unless you want to be refused entry and forced to replace your passport, this is unadvisable.
- seven 16y agoThis is not true for Germany. (Which makes this even more a security theater..)
- danudey 16y agoYou could cause even more of a hassle then by building an RFID zapper (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID_Zapper http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RFID_Zapper). A powerful one that fits inside a suitcase could be set off in an airport concourse, frying a large number of people's chips without them ever knowing (or any damage to the passport itself occurring). Do it on a busy travel day and suddenly the authorities have to deal with a ton of broken passports. Either they arrest everyone, or they let everyone through. Of course, you probably couldn't get a suitcase-sized RFID zapper through security, but you could show up, set it off a few times, and then leave without arousing TOO much suspicion.
- JonnieCache 16y agoHell you could just do it on the airport shuttle bus. Or at the passport issuing office. Now that would be chaos.
- SeoxyS 16y agoSo, you're essentially promoting terrorism… neat.
- 16y ago
- brokentone 16y agoI feel like this is a little mis-titled. I expected a method to do something to a biometric scanner, or to temporarily alter your fingerprints, not to remove them entirely! Interesting read I suppose, if you're into that sort of thing.
- regularfry 16y agoThis is a temporary alteration. Fingerprints grow back.
- jbri 16y agoA method to do something to a biometric scanner, using a belt sander? Somehow I don't think that would really be relevant for the "they're checking my fingerprints at the passport office" situation.
- teilo 16y agoA belt sander is a bit harsh. The micro-fine sandpapers used by plastic model hobbyists work much better, and are much less likely to harm your fingers. I remember reading this trick in the old spy novels, and being a model hobbyist at the time, I had to try it (on one finger, anyway). It worked -- so far as eliminating fingerprints. Of course, back then biometrics was a rather exotic technology, low res, and not in common use.
- wiredfool 16y agoMy experience making balsa wood aircraft indicates that the combination of gluing your fingers to a wing with CA, prying them off, then sanding the glue off was a pretty effective way of getting rid of the fingerprints, on one hand at least. Do it with two hands and it got very hard to pry the first hand off.
- bambax 16y agoHow long does it last? I assume the prints "grow back", but what time does it take?
- sambeau 16y agoYou can do the same with standard address labels as anyone who has sent out a large mail-merge will know.
- bhousel 16y agoI've heard of people doing this before, removing their fingerprints with a sander.. But I believe the fingerprints will grow back after a while. Couldn't you get into more trouble if they grow back and you are carrying around a passport with no fingerprints in it? Or do you plan to keep sanding them off for the rest of your life? (or the life of the passport)
- tofumatt 16y agoFingerprints will grow back unless you get down to dermal layers of skin and that will hurt quite a bit. Permanently removing your prints is a more involved process than this, but it's certainly a cute idea.
- iuguy 16y agoThe title really should read, "Using a belt sander to ensure your biometric prints never match your actual prints". Jacques is in for a world of hurt when he next travels abroad.
- mahmud 16y agoJacques is in for a world of hurt when he next travels abroad. To my knowledge, it's ONLY the U.S. that finger-prints foreigners. Jacques is Dutch, and all he has to do to avoid "a world of hurt" is to not come to the U.S.
- iuguy 16y agoNot true, there are plenty of countries that you get fingerprinted in. I get printed when I go to Saudi Arabia, for example.
- burgerbrain 16y agoMany countries have taken to printing Americans, only because their citizens get printed by America.
- iuguy 16y agoAt least according to Americans :) I get fingerprinted all the time and I'm not American. Maybe I just look shifty.
- WildUtah 16y agoTo my knowledge, it's ONLY the U.S. that finger-prints foreigners Japan and the USA, I'm pretty sure. And this system would only catch nationals of the country in question being fingerprinted upon re-entering that country.
- po 16y agoYeah and it doesn't work very well: http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/deported-s-korean-woman-passed-through-japans-biometric-immigration-screening http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/deported-s-... This woman snuck back in a few times after being deported by using "special tape." I really wonder how special the tape is. On the other hand: 846 foreign nationals were refused entry So, I doubt they will ever get rid of the program.
- DanI-S 16y agoPeople would be better of putting their bountiful tin-foil-hat energies to use campaigning against the governments that introduce these laws. Writing a letter to your MP is far more meaningful than grinding off the ends of your fingers.
- scotch_drinker 16y agoIt's all dependent on your definition of meaningful. If you want to be an activist, writing a letter is an excellent way to go about it. If you want a passport to travel sometime during your lifetime but would prefer to not have to worry too much about privacy concerns, writing a letter isn't going to help you much. I hardly think it's tin-foil hat territory to look at the state of most Western governments and deduce that they are becoming more fascist and less democratic all the time, completely in the name of preventing terrorism. Sanding your fingertips off and writing a letter to your MP serve two distinctly different prongs of a fight against that fascism.
- DanI-S 16y agoThe 'tin foil hat' madness isn't really in suspecting that there are people out there trying to control your mind. It's in believing that wearing a tin foil hat is going to stop them.
- stcredzero 16y agoA better plan would be: move somewhere so isolated, electronic media can't reach you? Any plans that don't result in shortened life span?
- cappaert 16y ago"It is estimated that 1 in 50 people do not have prints or prints clear enough to be registered by the fingerprint readers currently in use." Can you provide a source? I'd be interested in seeing data to back this up.
- wazoox 16y agoDig a 1m deep, 5m long trench in your garden with pickaxe and spade. I guarantee you that you won't have the slightest trace of a fingerprint on both hands for quite a while. Given the number of people working regularly with such tools, that's quite a sizeable number of smooth hands :)
- impeachgod 16y agoWhat would be more interesting, would be if he found a way to grow different fingerprints.
- ahrens 16y agoThe interesting thing is that fingers with the prints removed actually always do have damages that make them unique. In fact, it is usually easier to identify a print from your fingers now, than before. So good luck with that.
- m0nastic 16y agoI had a cousin who worked construction (and consequently didn't really have fingerprints). He also got arrested a lot (like most of my family) and they took to taking palm prints when they booked him. They would grow back if he went awhile without doing work though; it was definitely a temporary solution.
- Luyt 16y ago"they took to taking palm prints" Well, you could sand those off, too. And while you're at it: sand your toes. And your heels. Now what would you do when iris scans become a commonplace biometric? Sand off the back of your eyeballs? ;-)
- adrianN 16y agoYour iris doesn't leave prints on your gun.
- softbuilder 16y agoI had the opportunity to learn a little bit about fingerprints during a programming gig. The part he's missing here is that what he thinks is a smudge can sometimes still be used as part of a print. Partials aren't just from TV dramas, they get used all of the time in real cases. Also one thing most people don't know about is that prints can be "massaged" by law enforcement in what is essentially a photoshop-like process, so if a human technician can make a fairly good guess about what the print should look like, they still might be able to find a match.
- Tichy 16y agoIsn't that a very temporary solution. How long until everything is based on genes, face recognition and so on? For all I know those governments taking my fingerprints might use them to extract my DNA, too.