GSA Adding Facial Recognition to Further Strengthen Login.gov Identity Verification

The General Service Administration’s Technology Transformation Services will start a pilot program in May to add facial recognition to the verification features of Login .gov, the GSA’s single-sign-on platform for easy and secure online access to government services.

All Cabinet agencies have adopted the platform for user identification on at least one program or application that they maintain for public services online. 

The pilot builds upon plans announced in the fall to align the platform with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Digital Identity Guidelines, the GSA said Thursday.

The initiative follows the March 2023 report of the Office of the Inspector General within the GSA that the agency misrepresented Login .gov as using a higher privacy protection level.

In addition to the facial recognition pilot, the GSA will seek an independent third-party Login .gov assessment by the global nonprofit Kantara on the platform’s compliance with the NIST’s Identity Assurance Level 2 standards. The agency is also rolling out in July a new Login .gov pricing structure to help make the platform more affordable for agency users.

In March, the GSA announced that it is awarding to eight companies contract spots on a potential 10-year, $194.5 million procurement of next-generation identity proofing capabilities for Login .gov.