Sweet victory: Public outcry forces IRS to drop facial recognition!
Image from Ban Facial Recognition, a project of Fight for the Future
People rallied - and on Monday, February 2, the Internal Revenue Service cancelled plans to include selfies in its identify verification process for taxpayers! This is a victory to celebrate: a major branch of the federal government was stopped in its tracks from gathering more biometric data on more people.
Fight for the Future, a leader in the efforts along with the Algorithmic Justice League and others, had originally called the IRS move "a creepy and disturbing strike at your privacy and security."
“This is an enormous victory and will actually protect millions of people who would have otherwise had to submit their most sensitive biometric information in order to access basic tax information.”
ID.me is the facial recognition software provider for 30 states and 10 federal agencies. Yesterday they said they will drop their facial recognition requirement – a major reversal following a backlash due to the technology’s accuracy and privacy concerns.
Help build on the momentum of this victory and insist that all government agencies reject facial recognition for identity verification. Sign the petition to demand government agencies completely drop ID.me
Dr Buolamwini in her January 27 op-ed for the Atlantic The IRS Should Stop Using Facial Recognition writes: “Taxpayers should be wary of the U.S. government for pushing ID.me’s face-based biometric technology on them.”
If you’ve been following the issues with FRT, you know that racial and gender bias is built deeply into the technology. Drs Joy Buolamwini, Timnit Gebru and others initially brought this to light in Gender Shades (2018) where their examination of facial-analysis software showed an error rate of 0.8 percent for light-skinned men, 34.7 percent for dark-skinned women. Black men have been sent to jail because of this bias, huge databases are being collected on immigrants, and generally invisible data is gathered on all of us in extreme numbers.
Looking to learn more?
We recommend:
• Coded Bias documentary for a basic understanding of the dangers of facial recognition software
• Follow Dr Buolamwini on Twitter and LinkedIn
• Follow Dr Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell, fired from leadership of Google’s Ethical AI team
• Fight for the Future and the Algorithmic Justice League
Icemae Downes, resident of Atlantic Plaza Towers in Brooklyn. Residents pushed back their landlord’s facial recognition requirement to enter their homes. – Coded Bias