U.S. Federal Spending on Facial Recognition Tech Expands ⇥ cyberscoop.com

Tonya Riley, CyberScoop:

In fact, CyberScoop identified more than 20 federal law enforcement contracts with a total overall ceiling of over $7 million that included facial recognition in the award description or to companies whose primary product is facial recognition technology since June, when a government watchdog released a report warning about the unmitigated technology. Even that number, which was compiled from a database of government contracts created by transparency nonprofit Tech Inquiry and confirmed with federal contracting records, is likely incomplete. Procurement awards often use imprecise descriptions and sometimes the true beneficiary of the award is obscured by subcontractor status.

Among the contracts CyberScoop cites is one between the FBI and Clearview AI. Quite a stark contrast compared to countries like Canada and France that have banned the company from operating within their borders or using any citizens’ data.