Secret Service tests facial recognition app "Sentry" despite privacy assessment stating it does not use such technology
By
Anthony Kimery
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Summary
The U.S. Secret Service is field testing a mobile facial recognition app called "Sentry" with 25 Uniformed Division officers in Washington, D.C. This testing appears to contradict a 2024 Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) which stated the Secret Service does not use facial recognition to surveil the public, does not use commercially provided services, and "does not have the capability and will not procure any device" for such analysis. No separate PIA for Sentry has been made public, raising concerns about transparency and potential privacy violations as federal biometric policing expands.
Key quotes
· 3 pulledThe U.S. Secret Service (USSS) has begun field testing a mobile facial recognition application called 'Sentry' that could be at odds with a 2024 Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA).
The nearly two-year-old PIA says the Secret Service Office of Investigations (since renamed the Office of Field Operations), 'does not use facial recognition technology to surveil the public.'
The PIA also states that the Secret Service does not use commercially provided services and 'does not have the capability and will not procure any device' to analyze facial recognition data.
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