Rule Could Be Proposed In July, 2020

Following a report last year in which the Department of Homeland Security said facial recognition is the most reliable biometric approach to border security, the agency is mulling a rule that would require that a photograph be taken of everyone entering or leaving the country. The requirement would include U.S. Citizens.

The Associated Press reports that a proposed rule could be published in July. The requirement would be part of an identification system that uses facial recognition technology at the borders because it can be done "with a high degree of accuracy", according to a DHS report published in November of last year.

The report indicated that privacy risks are "mostly mitigated" because any photo used to match U.S. citizens to their identities would be deleted within 12 hours. A spokesman for the agency said there would be a period of public comment before any change in the rules went into effect.

The proposed rules changed will most certainly meet with resistance on Capitol Hill. Senator Ed Markey (D-MA), Ranking Member of the Security Subcommittee of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, released a statement after the announcement of the proposal.  

“The Department of Homeland Security should immediately withdraw plans to force Americans to undergo facial recognition and hand over their biometric information,” Markey said in the statement. “This proposal would amount to disturbing government coercion, and as the recent data breach at Customs and Border Protection shows, Homeland Security cannot be trusted to keep our information safe and secure. I will soon introduce legislation to ensure that innocent American citizens are never forced to hand over their facial recognition information.”

Senator Markey, along with Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), has been leading the effort calling on DHS to provide Congress with information on the agency’s use of biometric identification technology. Senator Markey’s efforts continued in the wake of a breach of traveler and vehicle images at U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), where up to 100,000 individuals were affected by the theft of images of license plates and travelers’ faces that were stolen from a CBP subcontractor.

(Source: Senator Markey news release and as cited)

FMI: Source report
www.markey.senate.gov