ICE Using Facial-Recognition to Scan Driver’s License Database Prompts Blowback
July 8, 2019
According to a new report in The Washington Post, FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been using facial recognition technology to search states' driver's license photo databases without motorists’ knowledge. What Does This Mean? Utah, Vermont and Washington are among the states that allow undocumented immigrants to obtain "full driver’s licenses or more-limited permits known as driving privilege cards,” and ICE agents have run facial-recognition searches on those DMV databases. Is that legal? That would be a firm “no” from privacy advocates and lawmakers. While some states are allowing federal agencies to use the technology, neither Congress nor state legislatures have authorized these searches, and there is a growing bi-partisan concern about facial-recognition technology and its capacity for overreach. No Dice, ICE The FBI has said that facial-recognition technology is helpful for providing leads that are later verified before arrests are made. But critics of the technology have raised a number of red flags about its use— particularly that the technology has not been thoroughly tested, and performs less accurately on people with darker skin. Tech, No: Big tech’s involvement in immigrant searches has become a hot-button issue in recent years, with at least 25 prominent artificial-intelligence researchers, including experts at Google, Facebook and Microsoft, recently calling on Amazon to stop selling its facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies because of its unreliability. Shareholders vote yes: Last May, Amazon shareholders rejected proposals to both stop selling the technology to government agencies and to investigate the extent to which it violated privacy. Regardless, the technology may face regulation, which Amazon has said it would welcome. On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing to investigate the Department of Homeland Security's use of facial recognition. -Michael Tedder Photo: Adobe Read More...
According to a new report in The Washington Post, FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been using facial recognition technology to search states’ driver’s license photo databases without motorists’ knowledge. What Does This Mean? Utah, Vermont and Washington are among the states that allow undocumented immigrants to obtain “full driver’s licenses or more-limited permits known as driving privilege cards,” and ICE agents have run facial-recognition searches on those DMV databases. Is that legal? That would be a firm “no” from privacy advocates and lawmakers. While some states are allowing federal agencies to use the technology, neither Congress nor state legislatures have authorized these searches, and there is a growing bi-partisan concern about facial-recognition technology and its capacity for overreach. No Dice, ICE The FBI has said that facial-recognition technology is helpful for providing leads that are later verified before arrests are made. But critics of the technology have raised a number of red flags about its use— particularly that the technology has not been thoroughly tested, and performs less accurately on people with darker skin. Tech, No: Big tech’s involvement in immigrant searches has become a hot-button issue in recent years, with at least 25 prominent artificial-intelligence researchers, including experts at Google, Facebook and Microsoft, recently calling on Amazon to stop selling its facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies because of its unreliability. Shareholders vote yes: Last May, Amazon shareholders rejected proposals to both stop selling the technology to government agencies and to investigate the extent to which it violated privacy. Regardless, the technology may face regulation, which Amazon has said it would welcome. On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing to investigate the Department of Homeland Security’s use of facial recognition. -Michael Tedder Photo: Adobe
According to a new report in The Washington Post, FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been using facial recognition technology to search states’ driver’s license photo databases without motorists’ knowledge. What Does This Mean? Utah, Vermont and Washington are among the states that allow undocumented immigrants to obtain “full driver’s licenses or more-limited permits known as driving privilege cards,” and ICE agents have run facial-recognition searches on those DMV databases. Is that legal? That would be a firm “no” from privacy advocates and lawmakers. While some states are allowing federal agencies to use the technology, neither Congress nor state legislatures have authorized these searches, and there is a growing bi-partisan concern about facial-recognition technology and its capacity for overreach. No Dice, ICE The FBI has said that facial-recognition technology is helpful for providing leads that are later verified before arrests are made. But critics of the technology have raised a number of red flags about its use— particularly that the technology has not been thoroughly tested, and performs less accurately on people with darker skin. Tech, No: Big tech’s involvement in immigrant searches has become a hot-button issue in recent years, with at least 25 prominent artificial-intelligence researchers, including experts at Google, Facebook and Microsoft, recently calling on Amazon to stop selling its facial recognition technology to law enforcement agencies because of its unreliability. Shareholders vote yes: Last May, Amazon shareholders rejected proposals to both stop selling the technology to government agencies and to investigate the extent to which it violated privacy. Regardless, the technology may face regulation, which Amazon has said it would welcome. On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee will hold a hearing to investigate the Department of Homeland Security’s use of facial recognition. -Michael Tedder Photo: Adobe
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