The Department of Homeland security is building a new biometric database that will be able to identify people through scars, tattoos, DNA, physical markings and even their voice.

Patrick Nemeth, director of identity operations within the DHS Office of Biometric Identity Management, expounded upon the new system in an interview published on Thursday.

DHS is currently in the process of soliciting bids for the new system, called Homeland Advanced Recognition Technology System, or HART, which replaces the old biometric database that was originally built to store fingerprints.

'You can only take a 25-year-old system so far,' Nemeth said in an interview with Nextgov. 'When we get to HART, we will be better, faster, stronger.'

A photo is taken by DHS as well as a 10-fingerprint scanner for international arriving passengers at Dulles International Airport in 2007. The department is upgrading the system

The agency’s existing database, the Automated Biometric Identification System, or IDENT, launched in 1994, and currently has biometric data on 250 million people.

IDENT stores traditional biometric data such as fingerprints, faces and irises. The new system will allow for additional data including scars, tattoos, palm prints, and more.

HART will also allow for upgraded search capability using multiple factors.

For example, if authorities had a partial fingerprint and facial image from a suspect, on IDENT they would have to run two searches and compare the lists of possible matches.

HART will allow for a combined search on any of the available biometric data points, improving the chances of a match.

The new HART system will be housed on Amazon Web Services' GoveCloud, rather than government servers.

A DHS officer fingerprints a traveler from Ethiopia in this 2007 file photo. The agency's new biometric database will be able to store information about tattoos, scars and even voices

Amazon Web Services already hosts various forms of sensitive US government data, with clients including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Defense and NASA.

The firm's GovCloud US-East and US-West region data centers have been custom built by Amazon to house the US government's most sensitive information.

Compared with the government's legacy computer systems, Amazon's setup is reportedly perceived as being more secure.

Development of the HART system so far has been undertaken by global security firm Northrop Grumman, who landed a $95 million contract in 2018 for the first phase of the project, which involves streamline the IDENT database for transfer and will end in 2021.

DHS announced a request for proposals on the second phase of the project in June. The second phase will involve construction of the HART system.

DHS also reported an interest in exploring the development of various general analytics, reporting and search tools, alongside creating desktop computer and mobile web portals through which government employees can access the system.

The DHS information request document reported that the department engages in mutual sharing of biometric data with various agencies, including the Department of Defense, the FBI and the Department of State.

The FBI's own facial recognition database reportedly has access to 640 million photos, while the State Department’s Consular Consolidated Database was reported in 2016 to contain records on almost 500 million passports, visas and expats.

Alongside this, the DHS also reports having 'information sharing agreements with several foreign governments as well as State, local, tribal, and territorial law enforcement agencies.'

The US government's collection of biometric data — in particular from facial recognition systems — has been attracting much criticism of late.

In May 2019, both the Democrat and Republican members of the House Oversight Committee expressed broad support for curbing the use of facial recognition technology at the FBI and other similar law enforcement agencies.

One such other agency is the Customs and Border Patrol, which also received criticisms from US lawmakers on June 16 for their growing application of facial recognition systems.