Activists and some lawmakers say a federal ban on facial recognition is more urgent than ever. And now, they have fresh ammunition in their calls for a federal moratorium on facial recognition technology. A new report by the Government Accountability Office, the federal government's main watchdog, makes it all the more necessary that the technology be banned at the federal level, they argue. At least 20 U.S. government agencies have deployed facial recognition technology since 2015, with many not knowing which systems they're using, the nonpartisan watchdog found. The watchdog recommended that many of the agencies better track the systems and assess their risks. The "agencies' failures to set responsible boundaries on facial recognition use makes it even more critical that Congress step in immediately," said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). Some groups are going further, calling on the Biden administration to issue an outright ban on the technology from being used at the federal level. "While the GAO's findings are alarming, their recommendations don't go far enough," said Albert Fox Cahn, the executive director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. "We don't need facial recognition regulations, we need a full ban. We can't wait for Congress to act, so we are calling on President Biden to issue a moratorium on federal facial recognition." The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Every American is probably represented several times across the databases, my colleague Gerrit De Vynck wrote. Six agencies reported using facial recognition technology to find people suspected of breaking the law in protests and riots following the killing of George Floyd — double the number of agencies that used the technology to find participants in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots. "Thirteen federal agencies do not have awareness of what nonfederal systems with facial recognition technology are used by employees," the report said. "These agencies have therefore not fully assessed the potential risks of using these systems, such as risks related to privacy and accuracy." And 10 agencies reported using technology made by Clearview AI, which claims to have scraped billions of images from social media sites and elsewhere across the Internet. Wyden, who called on Congress to pass legislation banning federal use of the technology, has introduced a bill that would stop government purchases of the technology.  Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). (Tom Williams/Pool via REUTERS) | Advocacy groups plan to incorporate the report into their calls for a federal ban. "I think this is just another tool to bring this information to the public and to lawmakers to push them into action, so we will definitely be using it in that way for messaging and for engaging folks," said Caitlin Seeley George, the director of campaigns and operations at Fight For The Future, a nonprofit digital rights advocacy group that has called for lawmakers to ban facial recognition technology. The group was one of more than 40 that signed on to a February letter urging Biden to freeze federal use of the technology, which they say violates Americans' privacy and disproportionately misidentifies and misclassifies people of color, women and transgender people. The criticism goes further than the technology's effectiveness. Even if the algorithms behind the technology are 100 percent effective, the technology itself is still being deployed in an unjust way, targeting communities of color more than others, Seeley George said. The report is a "perfect example" of why the "just-make-the-technology-neutral perspective" has been so criticized, said Os Keyes, a PhD student at the University of Washington whose research focuses on facial recognition. Even if the underlying algorithms behind the technology aren't biased, the law enforcement agencies deploying it are, Keyes said. That disproportionately affects people of color, Keyes said. Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), who introduced the bill to ban facial recognition at the federal level, also highlighted the technology's impact on people of color. The GAO report "shows that numerous federal agencies are using invasive and dangerous facial recognition technologies that pose disproportionate harm to Black and Brown individuals, members [of] the LGBTQ+ community and other marginalized Americans," Markey said. "We simply cannot ignore these tools that perpetuate injustice," Markey added, arguing that his legislation would "put a stop to government and law enforcement entities' use of facial recognition technology today." | Share The Cybersecurity 202 |  |  |  | | | 
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