Fingerprints are considered to be among the most personal of information, and fingerprint databases created and proposed in the name of national security have generated much debate. Recently, “Server in the Sky” — a proposed international database of the fingerprints of suspected criminals and terrorists to be shared among the U.S., U.K. and Canada — has ignited a firestorm of controversy. As have cavalier comments by Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that fingerprints aren’t “personal data.”

Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.

The measure the committee passed states that “an indvidual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.” To obtain this “identifier,” an individual is requiredto “furnish” to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry “information concerning the applicant’s identity, including fingerprints for submission” to the FBI and other government agencies.

The fingerprint provisions are contained in a “manager’s amendment” that was hammered out by committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Conn, and Ranking Member Richard Shelby, R-Ala., on Monday and attached the next day to a broader housing bailout bill that had been scheduled for a comittee vote. That bill, the “Federal Housing Finance Regulatory Reform Act of 2008,” expands the lending authority of the Federal Housing Administration and the government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to refinance the mortgages of troubled borrowers and banks.

The amendment adopted the fingerprint provisions in a section called the “S.A.F.E. Mortgage Licensing Act.” The fingerprints will be part of what the amendment calls “a comprehensive licensing and supervisory database.”

And the database would cover a broad swath of individuals involved with mortgage lending. The amendment defines “loan originator” as anyone who “takes a residential loan application; and offers or negotiates terms of a residential mortgage loan for compensation or gain.” It states that even real estate brokers would be covered if they receive any compensation from lenders or mortgage brokers. Since many jobs in both real estate and mortgage lending are part-time and seasonal, even some of the most minor players in the mortgage market may have to submit their prints.

Justifications listed in the bill for this database include “increased accountability and tracking of loan originators,” “enhance[d] consumer protection,” and “facilitat[ing] responsible behavior in the subprime mortgage market.”

Open Market

Here we go with another attack on our privacy.  I guess Real ID isn’t enough for Shelby, he has to sit down with Chris Dodd and plot some more invasions into our lives.  Why don’t they just get it done with and print the bar codes on our foreheads already?

They mask this onslaught of our personal liberty as S.A.F.E.  How exactly is storing the fingerprints of employees who work with mortgages going to keep us safe?  In what way is that possible?  Is it going to stop someone from writing a bad mortgage?  Will having someone’s fingerprints on file prevent another subprime housing crisis?  Of course not.  It’s like asking for a DNA swab in order to get your driver’s license.  There is no relevancy.  I’m also curious as to how many degrees this requirement would extend.  I work for a bank even though my job has nothing to do with finance.  Does that mean they want my fingerprints too just because I work there?  That’ll be the day.

And what of Chertoff’s comments?  Fingerprints aren’t personal data?  Last time I checked everyone’s fingerprints were unique.  It doesn’t get more personal than that.  Republicans have really let the Bush Administration slide on this kind of stuff.  This has been one of the most secretive administrations in recent memory and this constant push for more and more government authority over us in the faux name of security is getting ever so frightening.

Former Republican Congressman Bob Barr of Georgia won the Libertarian nomination for President at their national convention in Denver this afternoon. The question now is will Barr have a Perot affect on the presidential race this year? He is more of a conservative libertarian so we won’t come off as a kook like many of them do at times and with many disaffected conservatives who abhor John McCain, could Barr be a popular enough candidate to pull them over? Since he is also decently well known in political circles, will he be invited to the debates?