UK and Australian police are in talks with the FBI over an international biometric database which will be used to store and transfer criminals' details, in a move which has alarmed local privacy advocates.
If it gets the go-ahead, the so-called "server in the sky" database will share biometric data, such as fingerprints and iris scans, of criminals internationally.
The FBI suggested the database at a recent meeting of the five countries -- Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US -- in the International Information Consortium technology group.
"We've been watching these developments in a variety of places," said Roger Clarke, chairman of the Australian Privacy Foundation (APF).
"The US has been collecting vast amounts of biometric data from illegal immigrants trying to cross its borders, and is also in partnership with the UK to collect substantial quantities from its records...they're already building up an enormous and dangerous database," he said.
The UK's National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) said it was aware of the proposal and that any such system could be linked into existing law enforcement databases such as Ident1, the UK repository of more than seven million pieces of biometric data from crime scenes -- although there are no formal plans at the moment.
A spokesman for the NPIA said: "The FBI are proposing this and the proposals are being discussed by the International Information Consortium group but these are initial discussions, there are no agreements."
The APF's Clarke said that he was "extraordinarily concerned" about the possible consequences for the public at large, criminals or otherwise.
"The indiscriminate nature of collections in the UK particularly, and how far you extend the term "criminal", is what concerns me," said Clarke.
The APF chairman believes Australia's involvement in the database is likely should the project be taken any further but added that with the change of government last year, Australia's national security agencies will gradually pull back from having as tight links with the US as they did under Howard.
The UK Home Office also confirmed it was aware of the "server in the sky" as one of a "wide range of initiatives we are constantly looking at to improve our investigative capabilities".
US defence company Northrop Grumman, which built the Ident1 system, also confirmed it had spoken to the FBI about server in the sky.
The announcement of the "server in the sky" proposals follows the news earlier this week that the UK has completed a system to check the fingerprints of every visa applicant.
No-one at the FBI was available for comment.
