Border Officials Are Soliciting Companies for Real-Time Facial Recognition to Use on Cars at the Border

Once again, the United States Customs and Border Protection wants to acquisition caller surveillance technology. This time, CBP aims to beef up its borderline surveillance by using facial designation connected anyone entering the U.S. by car. As CBP continues to grow its surveillance infrastructure, it appears that facial designation volition stay a cardinal portion of the agency’s net.

Last week, CBP’s Office of Field Operations Biometric Program Office issued a Request for Information soliciting vendors for exertion to seizure high-quality facial images of radical wrong vehicles astatine inbound onshore ports of entry. These images would beryllium utilized for real-time comparisons with the Traveler Verification System, which is simply a pre-existing facial designation strategy that DHS relies connected astatine assorted introduction points including airports and astatine pedestrian borderline crossings.

Currently, CBP collects a wealthiness of accusation astatine borderline crossings including a “vehicle package” that consists of a licence plate, country photo, and biographic information. The caller exertion wouldn’t regenerate this. Instead, CBP would usage it to make a two-layer system. Vehicles would commencement by entering what CBP calls the Pre-Primary Zone wherever unrecorded brushwood photos are compared to immoderate “in authorities holding.” Then, vehicles proceed into the Primary Zone wherever CBP’s caller exertion would instrumentality and analyse photos of anyone who wasn’t already “biometrically confirmed” successful the PPZ.

Per the RFI, CBP is unfastened to passive oregon officer-actuated systems arsenic agelong arsenic they tin connection real-time feedback. In addition, it indispensable beryllium capable to filter for non-human passengers, similar pets oregon carnal graphics connected a shirt, and instrumentality usable images of radical adjacent successful unideal circumstances, similar if they aren’t looking astatine the camera oregon are wearing hats, sunglasses, etc.

This is acold from CPB’s archetypal foray into utilizing facial designation connected vehicles. Last year, The Intercept reported connected a antithetic RFI from DHS’s Science and Technology Directorate, which wanted accusation connected moving facial designation connected conveyance occupants arsenic they approached borderline checkpoints. Per the outlet, DHS has tested facial designation connected vehicles since 2016, including astatine the Anzalduas International Bridge, Nogales’ Mariposa Port of Entry, and Buffalo’s Peace Bridge Port of Entry.

In a property merchandise for Buffalo’s test, CBP stated that it is pursuing facial designation astatine vehicular crossings “in accordance with CBP’s Congressional mandate to biometrically grounds each overseas nationals who participate and exit the United States.” It besides stated that facial designation tin halt “imposters” from utilizing different people’s question documents.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation obtained a 2022 postmortem by DHS connected the Anzalduas test. Although the papers said that each “stated objectives were successfully met”,  pictures were lone obtained astir 76 percent of the clip and lone 81 percent of images were usable. It’s unclear wherever the problems with capturing pictures stems from. However, the RFI acknowledges these shortcomings, stating that, “Human behavior, aggregate rider conveyance rows, and biology obstacles each contiguous challenges unsocial to the conveyance environment.”

CBP’s plans to grow facial designation astatine the borderline aren’t perfect for galore reasons. First, Dave Mass, manager of investigations astatine the EFF, told Wired that CBP’s one-to-one facial designation strategy opens up possibilities wherever radical aren’t matched to their ain documents. But successful addition, CBP’s hopes to grow real-time facial designation to vehicles bring up a slew of privateness concerns. As Mass antecedently told The Intercept, “We person already seen however automated licence sheet readers are capable to make a monolithic surveillance dragnet of people’s vehicles and driving patterns.”

“If instrumentality enforcement is capable to adhd look designation seizure from moving vehicles to the mix, they’ll beryllium capable to way not lone wherever your conveyance is going, but who is driving it, and who is successful the car with you,” Mass continued.

According to the Anzalduas postmortem, CBP “must importantly increase” the fig of images it takes. The RFI seems to beryllium taking that into relationship arsenic it states the caller technology would augment “passenger images successful the PPZ” and let CBP to “capture 100% of conveyance passengers”. 

Vendors person until May 30 to respond to the RFI.