In FOIA Case, EPIC Obtains Details on State Department’s Facial Recognition Program

In response to EPIC's Freedom on Information Act lawsuit, EPIC v. State, the State Department has provided EPIC with several agency agreements concerning State Department facial recognition program. The Consular Consolidated Database contains millions of images from visa and passport applicants, which other federal agencies are now accessing for purposes unrelated to the processing of visa and passport application. The State Department agreements include the Labor, Interior, and Defense Departments. Several of the documents EPIC obtained concealed the name of the federal agency accessing the State Department database. In a related EPIC FOIA lawsuit, EPIC obtained documents concerning Customs and Border Protection use of images from the State Department.