Feds Told to Better Manage Facial Recognition, Amid Privacy Concerns

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Though the federal government widely uses facial recognition for various uses from criminal investigations to collecting traveler data, this use is largely unmonitored and unmanaged — a scenario that must change to protect people’s privacy and avoid inaccurate identification of perpetrators, a government watchdog report has found.
 
A recent report (PDF) by the United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) surveyed 42 federal agencies that employ law-enforcement officers and found that 20 of them — many of which are not typically involved in criminal investigations — either use their own facial-recognition systems or use systems owned and maintained by other agencies or companies, such as Clearview AI or Amazon’s Rekognition.
 
Of the 20 agencies, only the Department of Veterans Affairs Police Service, the FBI and NASA’s Office of Protective Service have proprietary facial-recognition systems, while the others either piggyback on these systems or use others, according to the GAO.

However, a number of these agencies don’t always know how facial-recognition technology is being used, nor do they know what third parties are collecting the data or how it’s managed later, the report found. This is especially concerning as the technology itself has faced numerous challenges — some even from federal lawmakers themselves — in terms of trying to limit its use even for legitimate purposes.
 
“Thirteen federal agencies do not have awareness of what non-federal systems with facial-recognition technology are used by employees,” according to the GAO. “These agencies have therefore not fully assessed the potential risks of using these systems, such as risks related to privacy and accuracy.”

Read more: Feds Told to Better Manage Facial Recognition, Amid Privacy Concerns | Threatpost