Next, officials testifying on the use of biometrics and its impact on privacy they are asked about the use of facial Recognition Technology and privacy risks. The hearing before house subcommittee on investigations and oversight is just under an hour and a half today our focus will be on how Technological Solutions can secure our privacy while allowing us to enjoy the benefits of biometric tools. Biometric privacy enhancing technologies can and should be implemented, along with Biometric Technologies, so called beach pads, the socalled beat pads could be implemented at the point of capture, improving the precision of collection tools to ensure they are not picking up features that are not necessary for use. They can insert, for example, obfuscations on the data collected, degrading the quality of the information, or introducing statistical noise so the biometric data is less usable for unintended uses. The technique called a template protection can ensure that one systems biometric information is encrypted so that it cannot be read by another system, for example, someones image obtained from the Security Systems that our doctors or psychiatrists office cannot be linked to the workplaces, to the work place Identity Verification system. Federal agencies, including represented at this hearing today, as well as dhs and science acknowledges director, are already working to develop and improve our technology for Biometric Technologies. The american competes act, which im in conference with, and with the senate contains a number of provisions that will future proof the governments demolition standards for biometric application systems, and invest in privacy enhancing technologies. I look forward to hearing from our panel how we can further impress in these protections, as Biometric Technologies become more and more prevalent in our daily lives. And the timing of our discussion today is in notable. The Supreme Court has recently substantially weakened the constitutional right to privacy in their recent decision, overturning roe v. Wade. States attempting to criminalize access to medical care they try to use biometric data to prove where someone has been, what they did when they were there. Third parties may also try to access biometric information to collect the bounties now being offered by some states to enforce new laws. This makes protecting americans will metric data more important than ever. Finally, i just want to observe that some of our witnesses testimony came a little bit late for this hearing. I apologize to the other members of the subcommittee, that we didnt have the usual amount of time as we would normally like to have had to prepare. The chair will now recognize Ranking Member of the subcommittee investigations and oversight, mr. Obernolte, for an opening statement. Thank you very much, chairman foster. Good morning everyone. Im really excited about our hearing this morning. The benefits and risks of Biometric Technologies and exploring Research Opportunities in these technologies. Im really hoping that this hearing turns into a productive discussion that helps us learn about ways to improve Biometric Technologies in the future, at the same time protecting peoples privacy. I was reflecting this moment this morning on the fact that Biometric Technologies really changed the way we lived our lives. This morning, i use facial recognition to open my phone, used the fingerprint reader on my computer to open my macbook. When i got to my car this morning, to go to my district office, the car recognized my face to set the seat settings. As i was arriving, used facial recognition to make sure i was paying attention to the road and thats just in the first couple of hours of today and its definitely changed our lives and its amazing to think that this was once the world of Science Fiction and now we just take it completely for granted. Obviously, biometric spurring a lot of benefits to our daily lives. We want to make sure that we are able to continue to allow those benefits while protecting the privacy of the people that rely on biometrics. For that reason, i am particularly glad that dr. Romine, from the National Institute of standards and technology, is with us here today to talk about the work that nist is doing in space. Nist has been working in Research Research for over 60 years. They have had incredible role to play in developing standards for biometrics. Im hoping that in the same way they helped the fbi establish standards for fingerprint technologies in the 1960s, that they are going to be able to take a leadership role in establishing standards at the national, International Level for biometrics today. And the standards are gonna be critical to enable the exchange of biometric data between agencies and their systems, as well as providing guidance for how those biometric systems are tested, how performances measured, and how assurances are made that data is shared securely and that privacy is protected. Thats important because, as we all know, biometrics are really no different than any other advanced technology and that they have beneficial uses, but they are also misused can harm individual and harm our society. In this case, by compromising the privacy of individuals or the security of their information. As policy makers, we need to be acutely aware of not only the benefits these biometrics have to our society, but also of the risks associated with the technology, especially in my opinion when it comes to the covert collection and the issue of individual consent to have ones information stored and used. I think as policy makers we have to Paul Vallance that awareness objects the potential benefits biometric spring to society. You could easily imagine as taking a draconian approach to regulating biometrics that effectively prevents the development and use of biometrics that would lose all the benefits that we enjoy from biometrics. Im not just talking about unlocking our phones or setting the seas on our cars. Biometric technologies really have extraordinarily helpful applications. To give you a couple examples, and ukraine, the Defense Ministry is using clear view ai facial Recognition Technology to recognize russian assailants and identify combatants. We Analytics Tool traffic jam uses facial recognition ai to detect patterns to help Law Enforcement identify victims of sex trafficking. If we were to take an overly heavy hitter approach to regulating biometrics, we would lose out on those lifesaving applications as well. That is something i actually have firsthand experience with before serving in congress, i was member of the california state legislature. I served on the committee for privacy and Consumer Protection in the early days of facial recognition before the risks and benefits of the technology were well understood. I could tell you, we saw a lot of bills that were misguided proposals. They could effectively banned the use of facial Recognition Technology altogether. Its clear that its a lot easier for us to push for legislation to Outlaw Technology entirely, then it is to conduct Due Diligence and try to intelligently balance the benefits against the risks of technology. Thats actually why the work of nist is so valuable. Here veteran are standing of the technology and carefully understanding cave safeguards and standards will help us develop biometrics in a way that provides safety for peoples privacy without stifling and the innovation thats gonna lead to future breakthroughs and benefit society. Before turning about their work today and from hearing from our witnesses. Im very much looking forward to the discussion and i yield back. Thank you. I have to say i am very much of the power that you might be driving. With all those features, it must be i wager you are probably are not driving in a ten year old ford focus. Actually, that technology is coming to date expensive cars as well. Its amazing. Anyway, if there are other members who wish to submit additional opening statements, your statements will be added to the record at this point it at this time, id like to introduce our witnesses. Our first witness is miss candice wright, miss wright is a director of Science Technology assessment and analytics. She oversees the work, federally funded research on electoral Property Protection and federal efforts to help commercialize Innovative Technologies and enhance u. S. Economic competitiveness. Since joining jao in 2004, miss wright lead on a wide variety of policy issues involving federal contracting, wrist to the Defense Supplier base, Foreign Military sales, and homeland security. After miss wright, is doctor romine. Doctor romine is a director of Information Technology, laboratory itl. Itl its one of six Laboratory Institutes in technology. Doctor romine oversees a Research Program the cultivates Information Technology by developing at standards and testing, security, usability and reliability of information systems. Our final witness, dr. Ross. Doctor ross is a professor in Computer Science and engineering at Michigan State university. He also serves as a side director of the Identification Technology and research. His experience is in biometrics, Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Doctor ross has implicated for the responsible use biometrics in mobile phones, including the nato advance workshop on identity and security. As our witnesses should know, each of you will have five minutes for your spoken testimony, your written testimony will be included in the record of the hearing. When you have completed your spoken testimony, we will begin with questions. Each member will have five minutes to question the panel and if time permits, we may have two rounds of questions for our panel. We will start with miss wright. You will have to unmute, i am afraid. Thank you. Chairman foster, Ranking Member obernolte and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss jaos work on federal agencies use on Biometric Technologies particularly for facial recognition. The technology, which read measures and rent characteristics, is used to compare facial images from a photo or video for identification and verification. As the technology has continued to rapidly advance, its use has expanded in both commercial and government sector. Today, i will share highlights from our work on how agencies are using face show recognition and federal efforts to assess and mitigate privacy risks. Last, year we reported on the results of our survey of the 24 largest agencies and the use of facial Recognition Technology. 18 agencies reported using the technology, the most common use was unlocking smartphones provided by agencies. There were other uses that included domestic Law Enforcement to generate leads for criminal investigations. As well as monitoring our controlling accessibility or facility to, for example, identify someone on the watchlist is attempting to access. Such use can greatly reduce the burden on security personnel to memorize faces. Federal agencies may own their own systems or access to systems in state and local governments or probe commercial providers to conduct research to facial images. Agencies noted that some systems can include hundreds of millions or even billions of photos. Multiple agencies reported accessing systems owned by a commercial vendor. For example, they reported it using ai tried and five victims and perpetrators and Child Exploitation cases. Agencies are investing in research and development to further their understanding and application of the technology. Some examples include dhss science and Technology Directorate who sponsors Technology Challenges for industries to develop systems. One recent challenge was to collect and match images of individuals wearing masks. In addition, they have awarded grants to Research Methods to prevent identifying an individual from facial images used in research. The expanded use in the federal government, there are concerns about the accuracy of the technology, a Data Security risk, transparency and its usage, and the protection of privacy and civil liberties. In our survey of Law Enforcement agencies, some agencies did not have completed information on what non federal systems are being used by their employees. In fact, during the course of our work, multiple agencies had to pull their employees and discover they were using non federal systems even though the agency initially told them otherwise. Using facial Recognition Systems without force assessing the privacy of implications and applicable privacy requirements can put agencies at risk of running afoul of privacy related loss regulations and guidance. They are also risks that data sets with personal information can be compromised with unauthorized individuals. Unlike a password which can be changed or breached, a breach involving data derived from a face may have more serious consequences as a facial image is more permanent. We recommend that agencies improve the process to track the facial Recognition Systems used by their employees and assess the risks of such systems. Agencies are in varying stages of implementing the recommendations. In our work examining biometric privacy practices at tsa and cbp, we found that tsa had incorporated privacy protections for its pilot private program to test the use of a technology for traveler Identity Verification at Airport Security checkpoints. However, cbps privacy notices to inform the public a facial recognition being used and its exit program were not always or complete. Cbp had not conducted audits of its commercial airlines and airport partners to ensure compliance with the requirements and retaining the use of traveler photos. Fully implementing our recommendations will be an important step to protect travelers information. In closing facial Recognition Technology is not going away the men for will likely continue to grow. As agencies continue to find utility in the technology to make their mission, balancing the benefits of the technology the, Data Security requirements, and privacy protections, will continue to be important. Chairman foster, Ranking Member obernolte, and members of the subcommittee, this completes my remarks. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. And next is doctor romine. German, foster Ranking Member obernolte, and distinguished members of the subcommittee, i am charles romine, director of the Information Technology lab and National Institute of standards and technology, known as nist, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of nist, on our efforts to evaluate the privacy implications of biometrics technologies. This is home to five nobel prize winners, with programs focused on national priorities, such as artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, the Digital Economy, precision mythology, quantum information science, bio sciences, and cybersecurity. The mission of nist is to promote u. S. Innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in a way that enhanced Economic Security and improve our quality of life. In the newest Information Technology laboratory, we work to cultivate trust in Information Technology and meteorology. Trust in the Digital Economy is built upon key principles, like cybersecurity, privacy, interoperability, equity, and avoiding bias in the deployment of technology. Nist conducts fundamental and applied research, advances standards to understand and measure technology, and develops tools to evaluate such measures. Technology standards and the Foundational Research that enables their development and use, are critical to advancing trust in, and promoting interoperability between Digital Products and services. Critically, they can provide increased assurance, thus enabling more secure, private, and writes preserving technol