The General Services Administration is conducting a study to test six remote identity-proofing technologies with up to 4,000 participants as part of efforts to evaluate the impact of race, ethnicity, income, gender and other socio-demographic and socio-economic factors on the identity proofing process.
The Equity Study on Remote Identity Proofing will be performed for 12 weeks between the summer and fall of fiscal year 2023.
GSA said it will analyze the collected data from research participants and work with the Center for Identification Technology Research at Clarkson University to look for any algorithmic bias.
“This is an important study and initiative to test and validate facial recognition and matching algorithms and technology to identify barriers across demographic lines,” said Sonny Hashmi, commissioner of the Federal Acquisition Service at GSA.
“The results will not only inform government strategy moving forward, but will also lower barriers for more Americans when they interact with their government digitally,” added Hashmi, a previous Wash100 awardee.
GSA intends to release a report in 2024 that will offer a statistical analysis of proofing checks’ performance and look at the causes behind any inconclusive results.
