The Secret Service Wants To Test Facial Recognition Around the White House

The Secret Service is planning to test facial recognition surveillance around the White House, "with the goal of identifying 'subjects of interest' who might pose a threat to the president," reports The Verge. The document with the plans was published by the American Civil Liberties Union, describing "a test that would compare closed circuit video footage of public White House spaces against a database of images -- in this case, featuring employees who volunteered to be tracked." From the report: The test was scheduled to begin on November 19th and to end on August 30th, 2019. While it's running, film footage with a facial match will be saved, then confirmed by human evaluators and eventually deleted. The document acknowledges that running facial recognition technology on unaware visitors could be invasive, but it notes that the White House complex is already a "highly monitored area" and people can choose to avoid visiting. We don't know whether the test is actually in operation, however. "For operational security purposes we do not comment on the means and methods of how we conduct our protective operations," a spokesperson told The Verge.

The ACLU says that the current test seems appropriately narrow, but that it "crosses an important line by opening the door to the mass, suspicionless scrutiny of Americans on public sidewalks" -- like the road outside the White House. (The program's technology is supposed to analyze faces up to 20 yards from the camera.) "Face recognition is one of the most dangerous biometrics from a privacy standpoint because it can so easily be expanded and abused -- including by being deployed on a mass scale without people's knowledge or permission."

Will be awfully tough

[nehumanuscrede]

to keep those White House visitor records a secret when everyone who visits is not only on camera, but matched to a database to boot.

Re:

[Aighearach]

Hint: That guy with the big floppy head isn't really Richard Nixon. Neither are any of the others who look just like him.

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[mysidia]

In all likelihood, they won't be White House records available for anyone other than law enforcement, however. They will most likely be classified Security / Law Enforcement / Secret Service data, privileged as strategic data and part of ongoing investigations into threats

Same deal as FBI records.... they contain private personal information about people and secret info about investigations and investigative procedures -- and therefore cannot be retrieved for public scrutiny. You can request your own

Can't say I blame the Secret Service for this

[Rick Schumann]

With someone like Trump in office, it must be at least 10 times harder to keep people out who would want to kill him.

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[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

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[Rick Schumann]

Oh, believe you me, I know damned well I've had an FBI file with my name on it for decades now, and the scathing letter I sent to Trump at the Whitehouse, after his continual attacks on the 1st Amendment and then the 14th Amendment more or less guarantees that the S.S. has done at least a cursory investigation into me, but I don't care, I'm not going to let a loud-mouthed bully like Trump infringe on my 1st Amendment rights, either. Let 'em send their jackbooted thugs in suits after me, IDGAF.

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[arth1]

Trump masks are available for cheap, just saying...

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[AHuxley]

To ensure most nations diplomats still feel its safe to meet their US spies out in the open AC.
So US gov workers still thinks its ok to meet journalists.
That a US contractor still thinks nobody will notice them meeting a spy.

All the other government agency collection is still well hidden so everyone feels they are still safe.

Like the K9 team that ask for citizenship all around the US border.
The FBI camera placed in a utility pole.
Criminal people think its safe to wonder around outside with the mos

Re: Why don't they just ask?

[astrofurter]

Thank goodness for the panopticon!

With this new CYBERNETIC TOTALITARIANISM technology we have completely eliminated crime and corruption from America! It's totally safe to walk in all parts of our major cities at night. Our politicians and regulators no longer accept suitcases full of cash. The city police no longer operate as a criminal gang, nor as an occupying army. Construction of inspectors no longer demand bribes, and certainly no longer have dealings with the mafia. Even potential jaywalkers shu

I'll take the government over Facebook doing this

[Crashmarik]

Any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

At least there are some nominal protections in how it's used not that the ACLU actually helps.

On the other hand, Facebook doesn't have SWAT team

[raymorris]

On the other hand, Facebook doesn't send a SWAT team into your house when you they think maybe you did something they don't like. Government has a legal monopoly on violence.

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[bill_mcgonigle]

Protections? Have you heard of Edward Snowden?

Steve Bannon detected!

[Anonymous Coward]

No wait, it's just a roadkill squirrel.

Greatest Enthusiasm

[Sponge Bath]

Computer: I've got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. [scans target]
Target: I reveal my Inmost Self unto my God: MAGA!
Computer: Sigh.

Im sorry but...

[Anonymous Coward]

I just figured they were already doing this. I mean why not?
Besides, if they were doing this are wanted to do this why would they even announce it. Just do it.

Anyone, scratch that, any American who would find a reason not to utilize this technology in and around the White House can GTFO in my opinion.
The White House, regardless of who currently resides there, is a sacred area of the USofA.

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[arth1]

Facial recognition can help with filtering out persons that are expected so that security can give more focus to visitors and the software can check those against known threats and if it fails you will be no worse off than if you didn't have the software.

Yes, you will be. If the facial recognition software fails and identifies someone wearing a Kellyanne Conway mask as Kellyanne Conway and security gives more focus to others because she was expected, you're worse off than if everybody was scrutinized the same and no prioritization made based on facial recognition.

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[arth1]

The White House, regardless of who currently resides there, is a sacred area of the USofA.

Sacred? Keep your religion private and away from my government!

Who cares about the ACLU/

[will_die]

Starting this year the ACLU is no longer for innocence before being guilting or requiring a fair trial. They are now out for political blood and will use any method to remove those they are against. So why should they be believed on this claim? We know they are against trump and we know they like linking innocent people with criminals and it looks like they are doing it again here.

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[will_die]

Brett Kavanaugh. The ACLU ran ads linking him with people who had been found guilty of rape either by their own words or were found guilty in court.

Won't work

[nospam007]

They even let people with orange faces into the White House.

Quick! We found a terrorist!

[LordHighExecutioner]

It is just in the Oval Room, all guards enter and stop it!

.........

Ehm, sorry mr. President, our new terrorist facial recognition system still needs some minor modifications.

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[Errol backfiring]

I think it will be the opposite. I think that the president himself is always recognised as good guy by the system. If you want to do something bad in China, wear a mask of the president and all recognition will probably stop. If you want to do something bad near the white house, wear a mask of the president (or his head of staff) and the system will fail. Off course, this only has an effect if the human guards are fired because of trust in this system.

The White House is a honeypot for crazies

[PeeAitchPee]

If you think this is just because of Trump, you may want to look back at the number of incidents which actually occurred when Obama lived there, including an armed intruder jumping the fence and actually ENTERING THE BUILDING [washingtonpost.com] and a mentally ill woman getting shot to death with a baby in her car after panicking, ramming the east entrance, and fleeing. [wikipedia.org] Seriously, knock it off with the partisan shit. I know about 45% of the readers on this site blame Trump, Republicans, and straight white men for the entirety of the world's evils, but nutters being attracted to the White House are a completely non-partisan phenomenon.

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[gazelam]

Right you are sir, there are crazies all the time. But would the ACLU be this excited if the occupant was a Democrat? As a political independent, that's what I want to know.

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[AmiMoJo]

blame Trump, Republicans, and straight white men

2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Weakening Security?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Why not have every employee in the database and flag people who don't belong? They don't even have to scan guests if the system detects an unknown and that unknown is detected with an employee who has checked in a guest properly the odds of a breach are tremendously lowered. How can this be a new idea in an ultra-high security zone?

That better approach seems so obvious that this announcement seems like an excuse for weakened security. We'll see if a future incident is blamed on precisely this low level o

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[arth1]

Why not have every employee in the database and flag people who don't belong?

Because unless they add security resources to check on and act on the recognition, it will inevitably mean reallocating resources.
Then wearing a mask or make-up of an employee improves your odds, as resources that would have checked you before will be allocated elsewhere.

And if you want to add security resources, you can do that anyhow; no need for facial recognition.