Federal agencies have been testing facial recognition tools in subway cameras, street corners and other public spaces for years, according to documents just released by the ACLU and shared with Gizmodo.
The aim of the project, called «janus“, was to develop highly advanced facial scanning technology capable of scanning people’s faces in a wide range of public places, from subway cars and street corners to hospitals and schools.
the janus program
The Janus program, funded by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency (IARPA), was launched in 2014 with the stated goal of “radically expanding the scenarios in which automated facial recognition can establish identity.” The IARPA researchers cited in the documents said they were interested in drastically improving the quality of facial recognition systems and allowing them to “scale to support millions of subjects.”
Threats to privacy and civil liberties
Experts who spoke to Gizmodo said the advanced surveillance capabilities described in the documents potentially pose “truly unprecedented threats” to personal privacy and civil liberties, especially given the lack of meaningful federal privacy protections in the US. If implemented as documented, the Janus program’s camera network would resemble surveillance systems already in use in China, which the Pentagon and other intelligence agencies have publicly denounced.
The lack of privacy protections
Facial recognition has exploded in recent years, with the technology used to scan faces at sports stadiums and concerts to airport terminals and iPhone lock screens. According to an audit by the US Government Accountability Office, at least 20 federal agencies are using facial recognition by 2021, though it’s unclear if those apps have any connection to the more powerful tools described in the ACLU documents.
The federal government’s position
The vision outlined in the IARPA documents seems to describe something quite different: a powerful, ubiquitous, public surveillance apparatus with a vast network and potentially capable of involving ordinary people just trying to take the subway to work or walk to home. States and cities may continue to move the needle on biometric privacy protections, but the same cannot be said for the federal government, which still lacks meaningful privacy protections. Experts urge the need for lawmakers to shut the door on government abuse of this technology before it’s too late.
What is clear is that every day we are closer to being inside the novel 1984.
