The U.S. Secret Service is testing the use of facial recognition in and around the White House, the ACLU has revealed.
A Department of Homeland Security document explained that during the testing period the facial recognition software will only be used to identify volunteer Secret Service members, but does state that the ultimate goal “is to identify if facial recognition technologies can be of assistance to the [Secret Service] in identifying known subjects of interest prior to initial contact with law enforcement at the White House Complex.”
Existing White House security cameras are being used for the program, according to The Hill, which added that the recorded images will be limited to the White House security system and will be deleted at the end of the program in August 2019.
While the ACLU concedes that protection of the president is vital and that the pilot program appears “to be a relatively narrowly defined test that does not in itself pose a significant threat to privacy, it crosses an important line by opening the door to the mass, suspicionless scrutiny of Americans on public sidewalks. That makes it worth pausing to ask how the agency’s use of face recognition is likely to expand — and the constitutional concerns that it raises.”
The ACLU pointed out that “Face recognition is one of the most dangerous biometrics from a privacy standpoint because it can so easily be expanded and abused — including by being deployed on a mass scale without people’s knowledge or permission.”
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