The FBI has a sprawling face-recognition program that can search more
than 411.9 million images of faces, including driver's license, visa and
passport databases, according the Government Accountability Office.
A new report by the government watchdog agency released Wednesday gives
an unprecedented look at the scale of the FBI's facial recognition programs.
The report reveals for the first time that the FBI has an internal unit
called Facial Analysis, Comparison, and Evaluation (FACE). In addition to
accessing the FBI's known Next Generation Identification (NGI) database of
almost 30 million mugshots and civil photos, FACE can search photos stored in
other federal and state databases.
It includes access to the Department of State's database of passport and
visa applications, and driver's license databases for 16 states. Currently, the
FBI is negotiating with 18 additional states to access their databases.
Last month, the FBI asked that its database be exempt from some parts of
the Privacy Act. The NGI program also collects other biometric data including
fingerprints and iris scans. Outside law enforcement agencies can also request
searches of the database.
GAO recommended the Attorney General look into why required privacy
impact reports were not published by the FBI. It also asked the FBI to conduct
tests on the system to determine its accuracy and false positive rates, hold
annual reviews of the NGI system and audit each database used by the FACE
system to determine if they're accurate enough for FBI searches.
In its reply to the report, the Department of Justice said any photos
returned as possible matches are not considered positive identification, and are
not sufficient to warrant action on their own. It's only used for
"investigative leads," according to the DoJ.
The GAO investigation was requested by U.S. Sen. Al Franken of
Minnesota.
"Facial recognition technology is a new and powerful tool that
holds great promise for law enforcement. But if we don't ensure its accuracy
and guard against misuse, I am concerned about the risk of innocent Americans
being inadvertently swept up in criminal investigations," said Franken in
a statement.
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