Recommendation

Congress should direct the GSA and NIST to set performance standards for facial recognition technology procured by the federal government.

Details

There are many different facial recognition systems on the market, and the accuracy and error rates of these systems vary. Some systems perform much better than others, and the most accurate algorithms have little to no bias. To ensure the federal government does not waste tax dollars on ineffective or biased systems, Congress should direct GSA to work with NIST to set performance standards for facial recognition technology procured by the federal government. Since the same technology is used by both the federal government and the private sector, by setting a performance standard for the federal government, Congress can promote better accuracy rates across all sectors of the economy.

Keep reading:

▪ Daniel Castro, “Testimony Before the House Oversight Committee on Commercial Use of Facial Recognition Technology,” January 15, 2020, https://itif.org/publications/2020/01/15/testimony-house-oversight-committee-commercial-use-facial-recognition.