{"id":"AIBD-0679","title":"ANAO finds that the Passport Office's facial recognition matching caught many identity frauds that would otherwise have gone undetected","summary":"The ANAO found that facial recognition matching of passport applications detected many identity frauds that would not otherwise have been found, about 22 recorded a year.","date_observed":"2012-05-22","date_basis":"source publication","date_precision":"day","benefit_status":"reported","source_collection":null,"source_entry":null,"account":"Since 2005 the Australian Passport Office (APO) has compared each applicant's photo with every photo in its database. A commercially supplied algorithm turns photos into templates for this one-to-many matching, and staff review the candidate matches. The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) examined the system in an audit report dated 22 May 2012. Through interviews with staff and stakeholders and through file reviews, the ANAO confirmed that matching had detected many identity frauds. It concluded that these frauds would not otherwise have been detected. In one case, a match led to an investigation that revealed 15 other fraudulently obtained passports. The APO recorded about 22 frauds a year detected by matching from 2005–06 to 2010–11. The ANAO found that this count was too low by an unknown amount, because staff recorded the detection method wrongly for some matches. 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A commercially supplied algorithm turns photos into templates for this one-to-many matching, and staff review the candidate matches. The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) examined the system in an audit report dated 22 May 2012. Through interviews with staff and stakeholders and through file reviews, the ANAO confirmed that matching had detected many identity frauds. It concluded that these frauds would not otherwise have been detected. In one case, a match led to an investigation that revealed 15 other fraudulently obtained passports. The APO recorded about 22 frauds a year detected by matching from 2005–06 to 2010–11. The ANAO found that this count was too low by an unknown amount, because staff recorded the detection method wrongly for some matches. The ANAO does not describe how the algorithm was built or whether it learned from data."}},"provenance":{"kind":"legacy_record","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":["summary","account"],"source_refs":[]},"review_state":"record_mapped","coverage":"partial"},"systems[].autonomy_permissions":{"state":"unresolved","provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"reason":"This is an explicit unresolved assignment: the sources on record do not settle this question.","review_state":"not_assessed","coverage":"partial"},"systems[].component_role":{"state":"unresolved","provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"reason":"This is an explicit unresolved assignment: the sources on record do not settle this question.","review_state":"not_assessed","coverage":"partial"},"systems[].deployment_configuration":{"state":"unresolved","provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"reason":"This is an explicit unresolved assignment: the sources on record do not settle this question.","review_state":"not_assessed","coverage":"partial"},"systems[].inputs_outputs":{"state":"unresolved","provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"reason":"This is an explicit unresolved assignment: the sources on record do not settle this question.","review_state":"not_assessed","coverage":"partial"},"systems[].model_name":{"state":"unresolved","provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"reason":"This is an explicit unresolved assignment: the sources on record do not settle this question.","review_state":"not_assessed","coverage":"partial"},"systems[].model_version":{"state":"unresolved","provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"reason":"This is an explicit unresolved assignment: the sources on record do not settle this question.","review_state":"not_assessed","coverage":"partial"},"systems[].product_name":{"state":"value_present","value":{"kind":"record_fields","fields":{"system":"Australian Passport Office facial recognition (FR) matching of applicants' photos against its image database (one-to-many)"}},"provenance":{"kind":"legacy_record","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":["system"],"source_refs":[]},"review_state":"record_mapped","coverage":"partial"},"systems[].provider":{"state":"unresolved","provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"reason":"This is an explicit unresolved assignment: the sources on record do not settle this question.","review_state":"not_assessed","coverage":"partial"},"taxonomy_crosswalks[]":{"state":"unresolved","provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"reason":"This is an explicit unresolved assignment: the sources on record do not settle this question.","review_state":"not_assessed","coverage":"partial"},"title":{"state":"value_present","value":{"kind":"record_fields","fields":{"title":"ANAO finds that the Passport Office's facial recognition matching caught many identity frauds that would otherwise have gone undetected","headline":"Passport photo *FR matching* exposes otherwise hidden identity fraud"}},"provenance":{"kind":"legacy_record","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":["title","headline"],"source_refs":[]},"review_state":"record_mapped","coverage":"partial"},"version":{"state":"value_present","value":{"kind":"identifiers","identifiers":["ee65d5ca0805d3498f5eca8cb3f7e3b97702cc3ee44c045051bab864dea887a7"],"role":"SHA-256 of the complete public record and its assessments"},"provenance":{"kind":"curatorial","basis":"SHA-256 of the public record, its assessments, and its displayed answers and notes, excluding its own identifier and the derived coverage summary.","record_fields":[],"source_refs":[]},"review_state":"record_mapped","coverage":"complete"},"workflow":{"state":"value_present","value":{"kind":"record_fields","fields":{"account":"Since 2005 the Australian Passport Office (APO) has compared each applicant's photo with every photo in its database. A commercially supplied algorithm turns photos into templates for this one-to-many matching, and staff review the candidate matches. The Australian National Audit Office (ANAO) examined the system in an audit report dated 22 May 2012. Through interviews with staff and stakeholders and through file reviews, the ANAO confirmed that matching had detected many identity frauds. It concluded that these frauds would not otherwise have been detected. In one case, a match led to an investigation that revealed 15 other fraudulently obtained passports. The APO recorded about 22 frauds a year detected by matching from 2005–06 to 2010–11. The ANAO found that this count was too low by an unknown amount, because staff recorded the detection method wrongly for some matches. The ANAO does not describe how the algorithm was built or whether it learned from data.","replication":{"produced_by":["A commercial algorithm converted each applicant's photo into a template and searched all other templates in the database.","Eligibility officers reviewed the candidate matches and referred suspected frauds to the Passport Fraud Section."],"must_hold":["The database must already hold a photo of the fraudster under another identity.","Officers need training and tools to compare faces in candidate matches."],"echoes":[]}}},"provenance":{"kind":"legacy_record","basis":"Editorial assignment.","record_fields":["account","replication"],"source_refs":[]},"review_state":"record_mapped","coverage":"partial"}},"summary":{"total":91,"addressed":91,"known":28,"reviewed":2,"reviewed_complete":2,"reviewed_partial":0,"record_mapped":26,"review_not_assessed":63,"not_assessed":0,"complete":false,"by_state":{"value_present":28,"not_reported":0,"unresolved":63,"not_assessed":0,"not_applicable":0,"withheld":0,"source_unavailable":0}}},"presentation_version":"8d8a9b8f47af2517d3a3bce416d49f0876b57df306a1d6ccf557e79689647e6d"}