Congress Is Investigating the Military’s Use of Facial Recognition

A letter to military secretaries shows that Congress has questions about how facial recognition technology is being used in the U.S. and abroad

An active duty U.S. Army soldier watches a monitor while manning a high-res surveillance camera near the U.S.-Mexico border fence (reflected), on September 10, 2019 in Penitas, Texas. Photo: John Moore/Getty Images

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform is officially investigating military and private-sector use of facial recognition, according to a letter sent to top military officials in June.

The letter, obtained by OneZero under a public records request, outlines a broad inquiry into all weapons and security technologies used by the U.S. Department of Defense, Army, Navy, and Air Force, as well as accuracy analyses and partnerships with public or private institutions.

“The operational benefits of facial recognition technology for the warfighter are promising,” the letter says. It then outlines potential uses for the technology, like the ability to “more easily distinguish between friend and foe.”

“However, overreliance on this emerging technology could also have disastrous consequences if faulty or inaccurate facial scans result in the inadvertent targeting of civilians or the compromise of mission requirements,” the letter continues. It states, for example, that “the accuracy rates for images depicting black and female…