The FBI has brought attention to their mobile app, Child ID, which instructs parents to store photos details about their children for use in an emergency.
In a social media post on Tuesday, the FBI promoted their Child ID app, designed to help authorities find missing children as fast as they possibly can. The app “provides a convenient place to electronically store photos and other vital information about your children so that it’s literally right at hand if you need it,” the FBI notes on their website.
Giving the example of a child lost in a shopping mall, they note that the app, which was first announced in 2011, allows parents to quickly show photos and other physical identifiers such as height and weight “to security or police officers on the spot,” with a “special tab” that allows the data to be emailed “to authorities with a few clicks.”
The #FBI Child ID app—the first mobile application created by the Bureau—provides a convenient place to electronically store photos and other vital information about your children so that it’s literally right at hand if you need it. Learn more at https://t.co/qCvDsH9h0a. pic.twitter.com/HpaUzjDz2r
— FBI (@FBI) July 5, 2022
Other features include tips on how to keep your child safe, along with more specific information for what to do in the first few hours if your child goes missing. The FBI made sure to highlight that they were “not collecting or storing any photos or information” that were entered into the app, as “all data resides solely on your mobile device unless you need to send it to authorities.”
Unsurprisingly, the re-promotion of the 11 year old app did not go down well on social media.
The Libertarian Party tweeted that following various revelations leaked by Edward Snowden that the American government was monitoring their own citizens, “the LAST place Americans want to store personal information is on a state-sponsored app,” adding that the FBI should “leave our children out of [their] control schemes,” a sentiment echoed by many other commenters.
Yeah, store your digital life in an archive the FBI can scan at will. This reaks of "we're jealous the NSA can see all your dick pics at will and we too want that ability."
Rampant FISA abuse? ✅️.
Politically weaponized? ✅️
Ability to scan your personal life at will? GFYS.— GearDown (@GearDown10) July 5, 2022
In an ideal world, this sounds great. However, I no longer trust the FBI with such information. I’d sooner support eliminating the FBI completely and building up a new organization from scratch.
— Wade Miller 1️⃣8️⃣3️⃣6️⃣ (@WadeMiller_USMC) July 5, 2022
Earlier this year, two defendants involved in a plot to kidnap Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer were found not guilty, after it was revealed that over a dozen FBI agents were involved in the plot, leading to allegations of entrapment.
