Can the Federal Government Be Trusted with Facial-Recognition Technology? We’re about to Find Out

The General Services Administration, which controls the public’s access to government services, is introducing new facial-identification technology that has Republican lawmakers concerned about the privacy of their constituents.

The GSA’s “login.gov,” which describes itself as the “front door” to the federal government, announced earlier this month that users will now have the option of uploading a selfie to confirm their identity.

“Proving your identity is a critical step in receiving many government benefits and services, and we want to ensure we are making that as easy and secure as possible for members of the public, while protecting against identity theft and fraud,” said GSA administrator Robin Carnahan.

“Login.gov’s new IAL2-compliant product offering is another milestone in ensuring agencies have a wide variety of strong identity verification options.”

Login.gov employs technology to ensure that the live selfie matches a user-provided photo ID and stresses that the images’ use is solely confined to verifying a user’s identity.

“Login.gov heard from our agency partners with higher-risk use cases that it was important that we offer a version of our strong identity verification service that is IAL2 certified,” said Hanna Kim, director of Login.gov.

“We’re glad that we’ve been able to do this while ensuring that users continue to have multiple secure pathways to verify their identity, whether that is in-person or remote,” she added. “Looking ahead, we will continue to uphold our values of equity, privacy, and transparency by incorporating best-in-class technology and learning from academic and user research.”

While Kim insists her agency can be trusted with sensitive data, Login.gov’s recent track record is unlikely to inspire confidence among privacy-minded Americans.

In March 2023, the GSA inspector general released a report that concluded that the GSA had “misled their customer agencies,” in part by failing to maintain adequate security controls around Login.gov, which was operated under a “hands-off culture.”

Despite the issues documented by the IG, the site currently serves over 50 federal and state agencies, 500 applications, and 300 million annual sign-ins.

This introduction of facial-recognition technology predictably raised concerns among Republican members of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.

“Despite the many advantages of face recognition technology, its trustworthiness has long been questioned, particularly as it relates to personal privacy issues,” wrote three sitting committee representatives in a letter addressed to the National Institute of Standards and Technology. “There have also been concerns raised about the accuracy of face recognition technology and the use of biometrics to authenticate a user.”

Citing a January report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the lawmakers raised several concerns about the potential for the federal government to abuse the new technology to invade Americans’ privacy.

“When applied broadly and without safeguards, the technology can allow repressive regimes to create detailed records of people’s movements and activities and block targeted individuals from participation in public life,” the National Academies of Sciences report read.

“With few exceptions, the U.S. does not currently have authoritative guidance, regulations, or laws to adequately address issues related to facial recognition technology use,” the report revealed.

Authoritarian governments – most prominently the Chinese Communist Party – use facial-recognition technology to surveil and oppress their citizens.

“These technologies are deployed in service of a dystopian vision for technology governance, that harnesses the economic benefits of the internet in the absence of political freedom and sees technology companies as instruments of state power,” wrote a bipartisan group of 17 senators in a letter to then–secretary of state Mike Pompeo in 2020.

Vladimir Putin’s Russia similarly employs facial-recognition technology to surveil protesters, opposition figures, and military draft dodgers. The Kremlin actively exports speech and facial-recognition technologies to foreign governments, according to the Center for European Policy Analysis.

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights released a report last month underscoring the potential dangers of such technology, concluding there are no current laws that explicitly regulate facial-recognition systems or any other variation of artificial intelligence by the federal government.