The FBI plans to limit public access to a sizeable biometric repository it has built, saying a privacy act could damage national security.

The Justice Department Agency plans to propose that the Next Generation Identification System (NGI) be free from certain provisions of the Privacy Act.

The new law requires that federal agencies share information about the records they collect with the individual subject of those records, allowing them to verify and correct them if needed.

However, the FBI doesn’t want the US public to access information about the palm prints, fingerprints, iris scans, facial and tattoo photographs being stored in NGI.

Specifically, the agency is concerned that the exemptions are needed to “prevent interference with the FBI’s mission to detect, deter, and prosecute crimes and to protect the national security, which includes the use of criminal history record information and biometric identifiers.”

It adds that exemption, “is necessary to protect the sources of law enforcement information and to protect the privacy and safety of witnesses and informants and others who provide information to the FBI”.

“Application of this provision could present a serious impediment to the FBI’s responsibilities to detect, deter, and prosecute crimes and to protect the national security.”