Last month, a black man called Joshua Bada hit the headlines after he revealed that his passport photo had been rejected as the online facial recognition technology confused his ‘big lips’ for an open mouth.
Now, a report has revealed that the technology was known to fail for people with dark skin, but that the UK government decided to use it regardless.
The report, by New Scientist, highlights documents released by the Home Office this week, which indicate that it was aware of problems before launching the system.
The documents, which were released following a Freedom of Information request by MedConfidential, wrote: “User research was carried out with a wide range of ethnic groups and did identify that people with very light or very dark skin found it difficult to provide an acceptable passport photograph.
“However; the overall performance was judged sufficient to deploy.”
Mr Bada isn’t the only person to have reported issues with the photo checking service.
Cat Hallam, a black technology officer at Keele University revealed to New Scientist that the system wrongly thought her eyes were closed and her mouth was open.
She said: “What is very disheartening about all of this is they were aware of it.”
While the Home Office says that the photo checker can be overridden, Ms Hallam highlighted that users may be reluctant to do this, given the warning on the website that people could face issues if their photo doesn’t meet standards.
Following the report, the government claims that it is conducting further research ‘to ensure that users from different ethnicities can follow the photo guidance and provide a photo that passes the photo checks.'
Speaking to New Scientist, a spokesperson added: “We are determined to make the experience of uploading a digital photograph as simple as possible, and will continue working to improve this process for all of our customers.”
