Three agencies-the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Capitol Police, and Customs and Border Patrol-also reported using facial recognition “with regard to the Januevents at the U.S. Of them, the USPIS accessed Clearview AI to identify individuals “suspected of criminal activity that took place in conjunction with the period” of protests. Those agencies included ATF, the Capitol Police, FBI, Marshals Service, Park Police, and U.S. “Six agencies told us that they used images from these events to conduct facial recognition searches during May through August 2020 to assist with criminal investigations.” “Following the death of George Floyd while in the custody of the Minneapolis, Minnesota police department on May 25, 2020, nationwide civil unrest, riots, and protests occurred,” GAO wrote. But agencies also leveraged different types of face-reading technology across use cases after those dates-and particularly in times of national tension. The FBI, Secret Service, and Park Police were among other agencies to use Clearview’s technology during the period GAO reviewed. “In Figure 3, we were hoping the visual would provide readers a greater understanding of how systems that federal agencies use can have different numbers of photos,” Goodwin said. Clearview AI’s system outnumbers the rest, encompassing more than 3 billion photos. GAO’s review included a visual chart demonstrating facial recognition technology systems used by those federal law enforcement agencies and the number of photos in each system. U.S.-based facial recognition company Clearview AI has spurred concerns about privacy and anonymity and faced lawsuits and legal complaints around its data collection and practices. The Customs and Border Protection, Marshals Service, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, for example, reported using systems owned by other federal entities state, local, tribal or territorial entities Vigilant Solutions Clearview AI and other non-government providers during the time GAO examined. In addition, they detailed an array of federally-built options and shed light on who deploys what. The systems could “include hundreds of millions or billions of photos of various types,” GAO wrote. GAO’s audit unfolded from August 2019 to June 2020, Goodwin said.Īccording to the public document, 20 of the 42 agencies that participated confirmed that they owned a system with facial recognition technology or used another owned by an external entity during a specific period. Specifically, GAO examined the ownership and use of facial recognition technology by those entities, the types of activities they use the technology for, and how they track using systems owned by those outside the government. But the June-dated document “omits sensitive information about agency ownership and use of facial recognition technology,” according to GAO.įor the study, the watchdog sent a survey to those 42 federal law enforcement-aligned agencies, interviewed agency officials, and reviewed documents from some organizations. The report is a public version of a more sensitive document sent to Congress members in early April. “In addition, by assessing the risks of using these systems, including privacy and accuracy-related risks, agencies will be better positioned to mitigate any risks to themselves and the public.” “By implementing a mechanism to track what non-federal systems are used by employees, agencies will have better visibility into the technologies they rely upon to conduct criminal investigations,” officials recommended in the report. “A goal of this project was to provide the ‘lay of the land’ in terms of federal law enforcement’s use of facial recognition technology,” she told Nextgov Tuesday.īut GAO found 13 of 42 agencies surveyed do not have a firm grasp of all the non-government facial recognition tools their teams use and therefore cannot fully assess accompanying dangers. Cory Booker, D-N.J., Chris Coons, D-Del., Edward Markey, D-Mass., and Ron Wyden D-Ore., asked GAO to steer the study. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., and Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Sens. GAO Director for Homeland Security and Justice Gretta Goodwin confirmed that Reps. In a 92-page report addressed to Congress and publicly released Tuesday, the Government Accountability Office offers details on a range of government implementations of the biometric technology. Multiple federal agencies that employ law enforcement personnel used facial recognition technology designed and owned by non-government entities in recent years-and 10 deployed systems made by the controversial company, Clearview AI.
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