The pandemic is testing the limits of face recognition

Law enforcement and private businesses have used face recognition for years, but use of the technology in distributing government aid has expanded rapidly during the pandemic. States and federal agencies have turned to face recognition as a contactless, automated way of verifying the identity of people applying for unemployment and other public benefits. Experts and activists worry that failures of this technology could prevent people from getting benefits they desperately need--and that it could be even more dangerous if it works as designed. The pandemic accelerated the use of many biometric data collection tools--temperature checks at doors, thermal cameras in schools, face scans at airports. When it comes to benefits such as unemployment, state governments are turning in particular to facial recognition, to verify people's identity before releasing money they are entitled to.