This hearing begins with Opening Statements from the witnesses. Thank you director. You are now recognize to give your statement for five minutes spent thank you chairman cummings and Ranking Member jordan and members of the committee. I am the Deputy Assistant director leading Information Services branch with the fbi criminal justice Information Services division. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the committee to testify today with the fbi use a facial recognition for Law Enforcement purposes it is crucial authorize numbers of the communities have access to todays Biometric Technology to investigate and identify to prosecute terrorists and criminals. The fbi nextgeneration Identification System which includes facial recognition aids in our ability across the country facial recognition is an investigative tool to greatly enhance Law Enforcement capabilities to protect Public Safety. As the fbi it is crucial to protect the Civil Liberties of the American People as part of our culture this is why when the fbi developed facial Recognition Technology and also pioneered best practices to effectively deploy these technologies for Public Safety to keep with the law and without interfering in the fundamental rights the fbi division has two separate programs using facial Recognition Technology that is the interstate photosystem or facial analysis comparison and evaluation or Face Services unit. Typically allowing authorized Law Enforcement agencies the ability to use investigative tools a facial recognition by looking at criminal mugshots photo lineup seven like to for decades while this practice is not new the efficiency of the searches has significantly improved using automated facial recognition the fbi policy and procedures emphasize the candidates return are not positive identification the searches are photos that only result in a ranking of candidates the fbi requires them to follow the nti implementation guide and facial Identification Working Group standards for performing facial recognition comparisons placing Legal Training and security requirements on Law Enforcement users including a prohibition against submitting photos obtained without with the first or Fourth Amendment those photos in the repository are criminal mugshots acquired by Law Enforcement partners with criminal fingerprints associated with it the fbi Face Services unit provides Investigative Lead support the offices operational divisions and legal attaches having trained to compare those images of People Associated with open assessments or active investigations against facial images state and federal facial Recognition Systems to establish agreements with state and federal authorities. It only searches photos that have been collected pursuant to the attorney general guidelines as part as an authorized fbi investigation and not retained. The service does not provide services but Investigative Lead since the review of the last oversight hearing in 2017 the fbi has taken significant steps to advance the technology. At the end of 2017 the fbi validated the accuracy rate and in early 2018 the fbi require Law Enforcement users to have completed facial recognition training with the face standards prior to conducting facial recognition searches. Additionally the fbi collaborated to perform the facial recognition test to determine the most viable option to upgrade the current algorithm. The algorithm chosen listed and accuracy rate 99. 12 percent to leverage it is complementing the upper rate that racial effect recognition algorithm i like to thank the men and women for their unwavering commitment of the fbi so much staff protecting the country against horrific crimes also the members of this committee for their engagement on this issue on behalf of the American People and Law Enforcement partners. Thank you. Thank you very much. Chairman cummings Ranking Member and members of the committees i am pleased to be here today to discuss the work on the fbis use of facial Recognition Technology over the past few decades this technology has advanced rather quickly and now has wide reaching usage from smart phone to social media and helping Law Enforcement and criminal investigations. However the questions we exist regarding the accuracy and the transparency of its usage and protection of privacy and civil liberty and when that technology is used to identify people based on certain characteristics. Today i will discuss the extent to which the fbi has ensured adherence to laws and policies related to privacy and transparency regarding the use of facial Recognition Technology as well as the fbi has ensure the capabilities are sufficiently accurate. Will also provide uppity updates on the priority recommendations in april of this year regarding this technology. And in may 2016 report we noted to legally required documents the privacy Impact Assessment and the system of record was not being public in a timely manner these documents are vitally important to privacy and transparency because they analyze how it personal information is collected stored and managed while the thorn talks about the very existence of the system and the types of Data Collected among others. Doj has taken action to expedite the Development Process of one that has not updated the process of issuing the thorn. We also record reported on accuracy concerns of the capabilities specifically we found the fbi conducted limited assessment of the accuracy of the facial recognition searches before they deployed the technology. Facial recognition system generates a list of the requested number of photos the fbi only assesses accuracy when users request a list of 50 possible matches others could have given different results for additionally these tests did not specify how often incorrect mast matches were returned knowing all of this the fda at one fbi built technology often uses facial Recognition Systems operated by 21 states into federal partners to enhance the criminal investigation. We reported the fbi had not assess the accuracy of these external systems and as a result we dont know how accurate these systems are but yet the fbi keeps using them. Moreover, we found the fbi did not conduct regular reviews to determine whether the searches were meeting users needs. We made recommendations to address all of these accuracy concerns doj has yet to implement them. As you are aware in april of this year the priority recommendations report which provides an overall status to outline those that gao believes it should be given high priority. This report included six recommendations so as of today five of those remain open. The use of facial Recognition Technology raises concerns about the effectiveness of the technology to aid Law Enforcement and the protection of privacy and individual civil liberty. This technology is not going away and its only going to grow brick what is important doj take steps to ensure that transparency of the system so the public is kept informed of how personal information is used in protected and the implementation of this technology protects individuals privacy and the technology is used or accurate and used appropriately. Chairman cummings and Ranking Member and members of the committee this concludes my remarks but im happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you very much doctor. Smacked linking members im from the Information Technology laboratory at the National Institute of standards of technology. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today with our role in the standard of testing for facial Recognition Technology. In the area of biometrics nist working with public and private sectors since the 19 sixties echo improving the accuracy usability interoperability and consistency of Identity Management systems to ensure that the United States interest are represented in the international arena. Research has provided stateoftheart technology benchmarks and guidance to industry and Us Government agencies that depend upon biometrics recognition leading national and International Consensus standards using biometrics such as facial recognition but also also cryptography to secure network protocols, reliability and performance testing. Essential to accelerate the deployment and Communication System that is interoperable reliable secure and useful. This evaluation reports gaps and limitations of Current RecordRecognition Technology with the advance measurement by providing a scientific basis with consensus based standards to have that data for this purpose standards. Conducting the face recognition grand challenge to challenge that facial Recognition Community to break new ground solving Research Problems on the biometric frontier since 2000 the vendor Recognition Program look at that algorithms for one too many identification and verification. To expand the facial recognition valuation and 2017 broadens the scope of its work to understand the upper limits of human capabilities and how these fit into facial recognition application. This Biometrics Research assist the federal bureau of investigation and the department of homeland security. With a former us visit program. And then to analyze facial recognition capability with image quality and demographics with those match algorithms those thresholds and that vendor Testing Program to provide independent evaluations of the prototypes with those algorithms. Significant progress made in those improvements since it was created. Researching how to have the examiners different photographs and to have face edification accuracy for a group of professionals to work under circumstances approximating realworld casework. The findings of the National Academy of sciences show consumers and other specialist including currents and forensic trained and untrained recognizers were more accurate than the control groups on a challenging test it also presented data comparing stateoftheart facial recognition algorithms with the bay best identifiers. Optimal recognition was achieved only when humans and machines collaborated. And rigorous testing standards can increase efficiency in government and industry to expand innovation and broaden opportunities for International Trade and conserve resources to provide consumer benefits and improve the Environment Health and safety thank you for the opportunity to testify on facial recognition im happy to answer any questions you may have. And morning chairman cummings. Without Transportation Security Administration with that analysis went to thank the committee for working with tsa as we continue to improve the security of Transportation System and for your support of officers and airports nationwide. To charge the and industry was security and a key component is to positively identify passengers boarding aircraft so with that appropriate level of screening that present themselves to a Security Officer since its inception it is carrying out the role as efficiently as possible using Available Technology to recognize the need to identify in an era where they become more sophisticated and prevalent to improve import performance so the biometrics roadmap that it takes to test and expand the capability at the tsa checkpoints that can enhance security and improve passenger experience. The roadmap is for major goals customs and Border Protection and biometrics for individual travelers. And then the pre check passengers and for the additional Domestic Travelers to develop the infrastructure of these efforts. Tsa conducts pilots to look at identify that certain airports looking at the applicability of tsa operations. To be executed in conjunction that it has been a privacy Impact Assessment and passengers always have the opportunity to not participate. In these cases standard identification process is used. Every passenger chose to use that biometric indication process the facial capture camera was an active mode needing only capture the image after he was in position and the officer activated it then passengers moved rapidly through the checkpoint in that regard if it gives a unique opportunity for tsa this can increase the effectiveness of the entire system using biometric identification and increasing the checkpoint enhancing passengers experience while providing more effective identification will be beneficial as we see increasing passenger volumes growing at a rate of 4 percent annually. The fact we experience the Business Travel day ever ahead of memorial day weekend screening approximately two. 8 million passengers tsa is committed to addressing cybersecurity concerns and in that regard the tsa modernization act the assessments of cbp developed with dhs Science Technology directorate addressing accuracy error rates and privacy issues associated with biometric identification looking ahead tsa plans to build upon the success looking at select locations with the biometric implementations at the checkpoints by privacy Impact Assessments to clearly identify through airport signage and passengers always have the opportunity to choose not to participate. Tsa is in the process of a systematic assessment this process will enhance Aviation Security to make air travel a more enjoyable experience using for passenger identification to determine the appropriate level of screening not for Law Enforcement purposes and the opportunity is always there not to participate thank you for the opportunity to address this issue before the committee i look forward to answering your questions. And now recognize myself. And 2017 the gao testified have signed contracts with at least 16 states to request searches of the database. Gao also with my chat with corrections photos. On how that database how it searches its own system and how this policy is determined . I would be happy to explain that we have a service safe Services Unit with the background checks and facial Recognition Services of the state dmv photos in accordance with the attorney general guidelines and then to have the open assessment or active investigation and then a search to the state the state runs the search for the fbi and a candidate list comes back. And with the interstate photosystem it will utilize that repository as well as dmv photos however state local and federal agencies only have access to the interstate photosystem and these are the mugshots associated with the cards with a criminal arrest record. And those in the non criminal database to have them searched while applying for a drivers license to be and that database searchable by the fbi to match the fbi work diligently with the state representatives we did so under the states authority to allow photos to be used for criminal investigations and also abided by the federal drivers license federal protection act and we consider that a very important process to access those photos in the federal agencies to make you say the state Authority Allows you to do this but one question we have been asked over and over but if any elected officials have anything to do with the existence . So another words where is that authority coming from . With so many citizens whether elected officials have anything to do with it. And then to sign the ou. And this is state law prior to facial recognition we are just leveraging that state law it is already in place with the attorney level at the state level. And with that facial recognition coming into existence, i am just wondering whatever lies you are referring to is like facial recognition. It is my understanding the states establish