FedScoop: Customs and Border Protection is expanding its use of biometric iris recognition

Iris recognition has been in use within CBP for around a decade, according to sources and privacy documents released by the Department of Homeland Security. Documents from 2016, obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center, reveal aspects of the program as well, showing that the Office of Field Operations did test the technology. 

…“What we don’t want to happen with iris is what happened with Social Security numbers. It got used for everything. Now everyone’s Social Security number is purchasable on the dark web,” Jake Wiener, an attorney at EPIC, told FedScoop. “I think iris is the last biometrics that that has not been broken in that way.” 

There might be limited risks compared to facial recognition, since iris images can’t be run against images collected on a large swath of the web and other cameras, Wiener added. “It’s easier to operate and easier to automate, whereas iris recognition, because you have to get someone’s eye very close to a camera, [it] requires more hands-on work,” he said.

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