biometrics biometric_ids Face Recognition privacy

EPIC FOIA - DHS Facial Recognition System Lacks Privacy Safeguards

In response to an EPIC FOIA request, the Department of Homeland Security has produced documents revealing that the agency has failed to establish privacy safeguards for "BOSS" (the Biometric Optical Surveillance System), an elaborate system for facial recognition and individual identification. The documents obtained by EPIC indicate that none of the agency's contracts or statements of work require any data privacy or security protections for BOSS' design, production, or test implementations. The New York Times reported on EPIC's acquisition of these documents, noting also high failure rates for these systems. EPIC is also pursuing a FOIA lawsuit with the FBI over the agency's development of "Next Generation ID," which, when complete, will be the largest biometric identification database program in the world. For more information, see EPIC: Face Recognition, EPIC: EPIC Opposes DHS Biometric Collection, and EPIC - Biometric Identifiers.

August 22, 2013| Share: