The House Homeland Security Committee’s Subcommittee on Border Security, Facilitation, and Operations held a hearing July 27 to assess the Customs and Border Patrol’s use of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT).
The hearing examined the role that FRT plays in CBP operations, especially technological advancements, national security, and individual privacy, according to hearing documents on the Congress website.
Nicol Turner Lee, director of the Center for Technology Innovation and senior fellow in governance studies of the Brookings Institution, said that facial recognition in border protection raises privacy and reliability issues.
“The fact of the matter is that if the federal government gets bias identification and mitigation wrong, it will erode the trust in the efficacy of autonomous systems, especially among everyday citizens whose lives are becoming more dependent on them," Lee said. "The use of FRT in the federal government—and especially at our nation’s borders—are no different."
Lee also shared concerns about potential racial bias in facial recognition.
“While less favorable conditions for FRT use yield less reliable results, the general concern should be that FRT is not fully optimized for diversity, and equity in terms of highly representative and fair samples of subjects, particularly those from diverse backgrounds" Lee said. "Further, FRT can be both underwhelming and inconsistent, causing havoc to both subjects and the users of the technology, like Robert Williams and the police officers that expressed a high level of certainty in his arrest.”
Rebecca Gambler, directory of Homeland Security and Justice for the United States Government Accountability Office, shared some benefits of FRT.
“Traditionally, CBP (Customs and Border Patrol) has relied on biographic information on travel documents to verify that a traveler is who they claim to be," Gambler said. "According to CBP, automating the identity verification process using FRT helps increase their ability to detect fraudulent travel identification documents, as well as expedite identity verification processes.”
Daniel Tanciar, chief innovation officer at Pangiam and a former CBP officer, agreed with Gambler.
“CBP’s use of facial recognition technology at ports of entry strengthens security, improves the international arrivals experience, and increases operational efficiency in a manner that is consistent with privacy, civil liberties, and data protection principles," he said.
