MORIS' Mobile Facial-Recognition Device: Impinging on Privacy?

Policebadge? Check. Gun? Check. iPhone? 

Last June we covered a new technology, nicknamed MORIS, that would allow law-enforcement agencies the ability to snap photos of faces, irises and fingerprints with their iPhones and immediately connect with a digital data base for criminal records.

With this technology soon to be outfitted in states across the US, The Wall Street Journal discusses how this new tool might affect current laws around privacy, especially as "face- and iris-recognition technology hasn't been put to a similar [to fingerprinting] legal test." While some advocates claim it could be used for illegal searches without 'reasonable suspicion,' others see it as a valuable tool for verifying people when traditional forms of identification are false or unavailable.

Food for thought: next time you get pulled over, would you mind having your irises scanned as a background check?

Mexico Pioneers the Use of Iris Scans for National Identity Cards

Today, Mexico became the first country to use iris scans for national identity cards. The program will begin by enrolling 28 million minors over a two-year period. Adults will be enrolled in 2013.

"The legal, technical and financial conditions are ready to start the process of issuing this identity document," Felipe Zamora, responsible for legal affairs at the Mexican Interior Ministry, told journalists.

Zamora said the documents, which includes the eye's image, fingerprints, a photo and signature, will be 99-percent reliable.

Not surprisingly, critics have spoken out against this initiative as a violation of privacy rights.