House Oversight Committee Holds Hearing on Facial Recognition

The House Oversight Committee held a hearing on Facial Recognition Technology (Part II): Ensuring Transparency in Government Use. EPIC submitted a statement for the Committee's earlier hearing concerning the impact of facial recognition on civil rights. EPIC urged the Committee to investigate the FBI's Next Generation Identification program. EPIC explained that an individual's ability to control disclosure of identity "is an essential aspect of personal security and privacy." The FBI biometric database is one of the largest in the world, but the FBI has opposed privacy safeguards that EPIC supported. The Bureau also proposed to exempt the database from Privacy Act protections. EPIC has sued the FBI for information about the agency's plans to transfer biometric data to the Department of Defense.