The General Services Administration’s (GSA) Technology Transformation Services (TTS) group announced today that its single sign-on service – Login.gov – will begin piloting the use of facial recognition technology next month.
GSA originally announced the pilot program – which aims to leverage the technology to achieve evidence-based remote identity verification – in October. The Login.gov platform acts as a “front door” to the Federal government, serving more than 40 agencies and nearly 50 million users, according to GSA.
The April 11 announcement notes that the pilot will allow users to match a live selfie with the photo on a self-supplied form of photo ID, such as a driver’s license. “Login.gov will not allow these images to be used for any purpose other than verifying identity, an approach which reflects Login.gov’s longstanding commitment to ensuring the privacy of its users,” GSA said.
Login.gov currently requires validation of a government-issued ID, like a driver’s license or social security number, and a phone number or address to verify identities.
The agency emphasized that use of the facial matching technology will be in line with National Institute of Standards and Technology digital identity guidelines – Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2) requirements.
The pilot is slated to start in May with a “handful of existing agency-partners,” and GSA said it expects to expand the pilot to additional partners over the summer. Later this year, the agency said it will seek an independent third-party assessment of IAL2 compliance.
“We look forward to soon launching this new identity verification pathway for our agency customers that will protect user data, prevent fraud, and align with IAL2 guidelines – all while doubling down on our strong commitment to privacy, accessibility, and security,” said TTS Director Ann Lewis. “This will be a key step in helping federal and state agencies who require an IAL2-compliant solution to more easily deliver benefits to millions of Americans in a secure, seamless, and timely way.”
Today’s announcement comes more than a year after GSA’s Inspector General lambasted officials for misleading Federal agencies using Login.gov about the service’s level of IAL2 compliance. According to the report, GSA billed agencies over $10 million for the service that purported to meet the digital identity guidelines but did not. Despite this setback last spring, the agency announced in August 2023 that Login.gov had seen a 50 percent spike in use across the government.
“These announcements reflect how, over the past year, our team has collected input and feedback from many agency partners and stakeholders,” Login.gov Director Dan Lopez said today. “We are pleased to be building a product that attracts and empowers both our partners and their users who increasingly demand a single sign-on service to access their services and benefits.”
In addition to the new identity verification tools, GSA also announced last fall that it will expand in-person identity verification. Today the agency said that “in the coming weeks” it will leverage its partnership with over 18,000 participating U.S. Postal Service retail locations to “help ensure that more users can take advantage of this convenient in-person pathway.”
GSA is also rolling out a new pricing model for Login.gov starting on July 1. The agency said the pricing model is based on “extensive forecasting that helps ground Login.gov’s future in a long-term, sustainable financial model” which “aims to help agencies of all sizes more affordably use and expand use of Login.gov.”
