GAO Official: Federal Agencies Lack Awareness on Use of Commercial AI

Federal agencies, particularly those in law enforcement, need to better assess privacy risks and protections for facial recognition technology, GAO Director-Science, Technology Assessment and Analytics Candice Wright told the House Oversight Subcommittee Wednesday. GAO shared results with the subcommittee showing 13 of 14 agencies that reported using nonfederal, face-scanning technologies didn’t have “complete, up-to-date information on what non-federal systems were used by employees because they did not track this information.” Agency headquarters often didn’t have a good understanding of what was happening in regional and local offices, said Wright: Using face-scanning systems without assessing privacy risks and protections can result in agencies running afoul of state and federal regulations, she said. The most common use of the technology within agencies is unlocking smartphones. Other uses include domestic law enforcement generating leads for investigations and agencies monitoring access to buildings and facilities, she said.