Homeland Security expects to have biometric data on nearly 260 million people

The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will soon have face, fingerprint and iris scans of at least 259 million people in its biometric database by 2022. These statistics are reported in a recent presentation from the agency’s Office of Procurement Operations and is reviewed by Quartz. 

In 2017, the agency forecasted to have data on 220 million unique identities by 2022. The recent presentation shows an increase in stats by 40 million unique identities. The presentation shared on October 30, at Homeland Security’s industry day includes a detailed summary of what the system currently contains. It also gives a detailed presentation of what the next few years will deliver.  

The agency is making a transition from a legacy system called IDENT to HART, a cloud-based system. HART which stands for Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology is hosted by Amazon Web Services. Homeland Security has the world’s second-largest biometrics database, behind only India’s countrywide biometric ID network in size. The department also shares its traveler data with other US agencies, state and local law enforcement as well as foreign entities.