FBI amasses biometric database on billions of people

The Washington Post reports that the FBI has tendered bids from technology firms on a super-database that would collate existing, disparate stores of biometric data owned by the U.S. government. From the article: "The FBI is embarking on a $1 billion effort to build the world's largest computer database of peoples' physical characteristics, a project that would give the government unprecedented abilities to identify individuals in the United States and abroad." The biometrics data will come from many sources, from the fingerprints stored during criminal background checks required by many employers, to the iris scans taken by U.S. soldiers in Iraq to help catch IED planters.

I was a little sensational with my post title, but I'm sure that once they've gone this far, how much harder would it be to link to biometric data warehouses from other governments and compile information on one billion folks. Does anyone else get a little weirded out by this? Not to sound all apocalyptic or anything, but what if the mark on the forehead and hand are not marks at all, but simply your biometric signal? Que X-files theme music.