Federal Agencies Mostly Use Facial Recognition Tech for Digital Access

The most popular uses for facial recognition technology (FRT) by federal agencies are cybersecurity and digital access, according to a new report by the United States Government Accountability Office.

The GAO surveyed 24 agencies about their FRT activities in the fiscal year 2020 and found 75% (18) use an FRT system for one or more purposes.

Sixteen agencies reported deploying the technology for digital access or cybersecurity purposes, with two of these agencies (General Services Administration and Social Security Administration) saying that they were testing FRT to verify the identities of people who were accessing government websites.

The report stated that 14 of these 16 agencies "authorized personnel to use FRT to unlock their agency-issued smartphones — the most common purpose of FRT reported."

Six agencies said that they had been using FRT to generate leads in criminal investigations; for example, to identify a person of interest by comparing their image against mugshots. 

"In some cases, agencies identify crime victims, such as exploited children, by using commercial systems that compare against publicly available images, such as from social media," stated the report.

Just over a quarter (27.5%) of agencies reported using FRT to monitor or surveil locations to control access to a building or facility or to detect the presence of an individual, such as someone on a watchlist.

More than half of the agencies (55%) reported FRT-related research and development that included examining the technology's ability to detect image manipulation and researching how accurately it could identify individuals wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.