SIA applauds NIST's facial recognition performance report

SILVER SPRING, Md.—The Security Industry Association (SIA) offered sincere gratitude to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) for its thoughtful and diligent work in producing a report evaluating the performance of current facial recognition technology across demographic groups. Because facial recognition is a fast-advancing technology in a constant cycle of improvements and is widely adopted across the public and private sectors, reports from non-biased organizations, like NIST, are immensely valuable. SIA commends NIST for encouraging research organizations to examine this issue comprehensively rather than publish incomplete research in order to generate attention.

“The NIST study provides clear data that can help shape advances in facial recognition,” Don Erickson, CEO of SIA, said in the announcement.

Facial recognition solutions offer tremendous benefits for homeland security and public safety applications. The clear advantages of this technology necessitate that steady improvements be made and documented to ensure the public can trust this technology's public benefits.

The NIST report found that demographic differentials are lessening due to many of the high-performing algorithms producing fewer errors. The report also emphasized that many facial-recognition-use scenarios require trained humans to remain integral to the process. SIA agrees that trained personnel are critical to the successful deployment of this technology.

“SIA encourages collaborative efforts by member companies and involving key stakeholders with the goal of improving facial recognition algorithms and eliminating significant accuracy variation or potential bias,” Erickson said. “Our members look forward to a strong continued working relationship with NIST and its scientists as these technologies improve and go even further in protecting human lives.”