A Department of Homeland Security Inspector General report highlighted many challenges to facial recognition at airports. The problems of accurate biometric matches apply to all travelers, and particularly U.S. citizens. According to the Inspector General's report, "U.S. citizens accounted for the lowest biometric confirmation rate." A report obtained by EPIC last year through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit revealed that iris imaging and facial recognition for border control did not perform operate at a "satisfactory" level. In a statement to Congress earlier this year, EPIC warned that biometric identification techniques are unreliable and lack proper privacy safeguards.
The International Working Group on Data Protection adopted new recommendations to protect privacy as vehicles become increasingly connected. The Berlin-based Working Group includes data protection authorities who assess emerging privacy challenges. As cars today connect both to the Internet and other vehicles "more and more personal data will be collected and processed by the vehicles and will become accessible to third parties," the Working Group paper explains. The Working Group recommended that vehicle sensors not store personal data of persons outside the vehicle, allow drivers to opt out of non-essential data collection, and minimize personal data collection. In comments to NHTSA, EPIC called for national safety standards for connected cars. EPIC also underscored the privacy risks of modern vehicles in a recent amicus brief to the Supreme Court. In 2017, EPIC hosted a meeting of the IWG in Washington, D.C. at the Goethe-Institut.
The Senate has passed legislation to reauthorize the FAA and expand drone integration, but the bill ignores pressing concerns about the privacy impact of drones. A previous version of the bill included privacy protections originally proposed by Sen. Markey and Rep. Welch in the Drone Aircraft Privacy and Transparency Act. The version passed by the House and Senate only requires a report on drone surveillance risks but does not establish any baseline privacy safeguards. The bill now goes to the President's desk. EPIC has repeatedly urged both Congress and the FAA to take decisive action to limit the use of drones for surveillance and to establish a national database detailing drone surveillance capabilities. EPIC sued the FAA to establish privacy rules for drones, after more than 100 experts and organizations petitioned the agency.
