Login.gov announces availability for facial recognition technology
Login.gov, the single sign-on platform provided by the General Services Administration, will begin offering a new identity verification option to its partners.
GSA’s new option will verify identity with facial recognition technology through the independently certified NIST 800-63 Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2), a standard that introduces the need for either remote or physically present identity proofing, according to a Wednesday press release. The agency said this implementation will allow federal agencies to verify users at a higher assurance level.
The IAL2-compliant option offers one-to-one facial matching technology, and has users confirm their identity with a live selfie matched with a photo ID, such as a driver’s license. The release emphasized to users that “Login.gov does not use one-to-many facial identification and does not use these images for any purpose other than verifying a user’s identity.”
Login.gov Director Hanna Kim said in a statement that her team “heard from our agency partners with higher-risk use cases that it was important that we offer a version of our strong identity verification service that is IAL2 certified. Looking ahead, we will continue to uphold our values of equity, privacy and transparency by incorporating best-in-class technology and learning from our academic and user research.”
The move follows GSA’s announcement in April that it was piloting biometric verification. The agency later told FedScoop that the pilot’s goal was to evaluate overall user experience throughout the new workflow and to find where individuals become stuck or confused so the “team can iteratively make improvements.”
Ann Lewis, director of the GSA’s Technology Transformation Services, previously told FedScoop that the agency was “getting lots of really interesting, useful data” during the pilot. Lewis also shared that the program recently added Chinese to the website’s language offerings.
“All of our programs at TTS are trying to prioritize accessibility, user research and language access,” Lewis said. “Since Login.gov is a front door for many other government agencies and programs, the user demographics and the breadth of who uses the system will vary from agency to agency and program to program. But sometimes we’ll identify a need … because there’s a whole sector of users who will benefit from that.”
This story was updated Oct. 11, 2024, to clarify that Login.gov does not use one-to-many facial identification and does not use these images for any purpose other than verifying a user’s identity.
