Equity study on remote identity proofing

Ensuring identity-proofing services work for everyone

GSA is committed to ensuring that all Americans can access and use the products, services, and solutions we provide across government. It’s important that remote identity proofing supports that. Remote identity proofing is the process of verifying who an individual says they are.

GSA strives to put people first in all of its solution design efforts. Looking to customer experience and driving customer-centric innovation is important. GSA believes technology should be an enabler, not a barrier, for people to access the information and services they need.

The 2021 President’s Management Agenda [PDF] outlines a call-to-action for the government to provide simple, secure, and equitable solutions to every person and entity interacting with federal agencies. The Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government also challenges agencies to find ways to deliver government services equitably to all Americans.

In addition, GSA’s Equity Action Plan [PDF - 351 KB] maps out a blueprint for how the agency will advance equitable services.

As part of that commitment, the Equity Study on Remote Identity Proofing will define the gaps in existing identity proofing technologies as GSA continues to deliver an innovative and unbiased user experience to everyone.

This research will help assess the impact of facial recognition technology across multiple demographic groups and vulnerable populations. The results of the study will help GSA and other federal agencies advance equity in new, modern technologies.

The framework

The Technology Transformation Services (TTS ), which manages the study, leads digital transformation efforts for a more efficient, user-focused government. Housed within GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service (FAS), TTS exists to design and deliver a digital government with and for the people.

The GSA Equity Study on Remote Identity Proofing will evaluate the efficacy of technologies commonly used in the process of verifying that a person is who they say they are. Specifically, the study will assess the impact of socio-economic and socio-demographic factors, like ethnicity, race, gender and income, on the identity proofing process.

GSA will test remote identity-proofing tools that include both biometric checks using facial verification technology as well as non-biometric methods like phone-account ownership and consumer history. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publications (SP) guidelines from the SP 800-63-3 [PDF] standard for remote one-to-one identity proofing serve as a framework for the study.

The research

GSA is committed to combating bias and improving outreach practices, user testing, and user experience for underserved communities in civic tech design. GSA is studying remote identity-proofing technologies that the American public may interact with when accessing government services and benefits.

The Equity Study on Remote Identity Proofing included participants from various demographic groups to help GSA understand the current state of equitable remote identity-proofing services for the public.

Research launched in August 2023 and recruitment ran through April 2024.

Research participants provided their personal identifiable information (PII) into an identity-proofing testing platform hosted by GSA. Identity-proofing vendors processed the data and provided identity proofing results based on the PII. The proofing results as well as the PII were then stored in the secured GSA managed system, and any information processed by the proofing vendors was disposed of within 24 hours.

Now that data collection is complete, GSA will analyze the data and look for algorithmic bias in partnership with the Center for Identification Technology Research (CITeR) at Clarkson University.

The team published necessary notices within the Federal Register specific to Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) guidelines in both October 2022 and January 2023.

As of April 2024, the Equity Study on Remote Identity Proofing included 4,000 participants who were asked to test five different vendor solutions. This will enable GSA to identify statistically significant differences in proofing failures that may be correlated with demographic bias in identity-proofing systems.

The report

GSA plans to release a report with the results from the Equity Study on Remote Identity Proofing in a peer-reviewed publication in fiscal year 2025. The report will present a statistical analysis of the performance of proofing checks and explore the causes behind any false negative or inconclusive results. With the learnings from the report, GSA will use the results to inform future efforts. The final report will live on GSA.gov.

Get in touch

Email identityequitystudy@gsa.gov.