Made out of people

More on Fingerprints

A bit back, I wrote about statistical probability and fingerprint matches.

Via Crooked Timber, a few new points have come to light.

• The FBI had had the matching person under surveilance already. That's good news to me: it suggests that this wasn't a random-database match, but instead against a restricted set.

• The FBI has now apologized for the bad match.

Upon review it was determined that the FBI identification was based on an image of substandard quality, which was particularly problematic because of the remarkable number of points of similarity between Mr. Mayfield’s prints and the print details in the images submitted to the FBI.

For the moment, I'm relieved. While Belle of Crooked Timber is more worried about the FBI, their surveilance habits, their choices of databases, and their eagerness to detain "materal witnesses"--and perhaps she well should be--I will take some consolation in the fact that the statistics, at least, weren't quite as badly abused as I'd feared.