EPIC, Others Urge ICE to End Use of Facial Recognition Tech
The use of facial recognition technology by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is “reckless” and must stop, said privacy, civil liberties and civil rights groups in a letter to the chief privacy officer of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released Wednesday.
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“ICE field officers are reportedly using a smartphone application with facial recognition capabilities, known as Mobile Fortify, to identify people in the field and determine their immigration status,” said the Tuesday letter. “Facial recognition is ‘inherently privacy sensitive’ and its use (if it should be used at all) requires ‘safeguards for privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties,’” which “DHS has acknowledged.”
Using this technology in the field, therefore, “is dangerous, ripe for abuse, and undermines privacy, civil liberties, and civil rights.”
In addition, the letter said that ICE has not conducted a privacy impact assessment for Mobile Fortify as required. They called on the DHS Privacy Office to “immediately release any privacy or other analysis the Office has performed related to ICE’s use of facial recognition in the field via the Mobile Fortify app.”
The technology also fails at times, resulting in higher error "rates for women and people of color,” and it's “even less accurate when the images used are not of ideal quality,” the letter said. That makes ICE's use of it “troubling," though it “would be just as disturbing even if the technology was 100% accurate.”
The 25 groups that signed the letter include the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project.