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December 19, 2019

Government Facial Recognition Report Confirms Unreliability and Racial Bias

(WASHINGTON) – Today, Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-MS), Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, released the following statement on a National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) report on facial recognition technology:

“In recent years, the Department of Homeland Security has significantly increased its use of facial recognition technology on Americans and visitors alike, despite serious privacy and civil liberties concerns.  This report not only confirms these concerns, but shows facial recognition systems are even more unreliable and racially biased than we feared.  It is clear these systems have systemic design flaws that have not been fixed and may well negate their effectiveness.  The Administration must reassess its plans for facial recognition technology in light of these shocking results.”

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