Civil liberties groups are criticizing an FBI proposal that they say would make it harder for people to know if personal information about them such as fingerprints and iris scans is on file.

The FBI is proposing to exempt one of its key identification databases from the federal Privacy Act — which lets individuals sue to see what information the government keeps on them.

The government now wants to exempt a database that contains biometric data such as fingerprints, palm prints, photographs, iris scans.

FBI and Justice Department officials say the Privacy Act allows law enforcement to claim exemptions for records “compiled for the purpose of identifying criminals and for conducting criminal investigations.”

The ACLU and other groups are challenging the proposal.

(AP)