[Federal Register Volume 89, Number 143 (Thursday, July 25, 2024)]
[Notices]
[Pages 60443-60445]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2024-16341]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY

[Docket Number DHS-2024-0026]


Agency Information Collection Activities: DHS OBIM Biometric 
Technology Assessments, OMB Control No. 1601-NEW

AGENCY: Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

ACTION: 60-Day notice and request for comments.

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SUMMARY: The Department of Homeland Security will submit the following 
Information Collection Request (ICR) to the Office of Management and 
Budget (OMB) for review and clearance in accordance with the Paperwork 
Reduction Act of 1995.

DATES: Comments are encouraged and will be accepted until September 23, 
2024. This process is conducted in accordance with 5 CFR 1320.1.

ADDRESSES: You may submit comments, identified by docket number Docket 
# DHS-2024-0026, at:
    [cir] Federal eRulemaking Portal: http://www.regulations.gov. 
Please follow the instructions for submitting comments.
    Instructions: All submissions received must include the agency name 
and docket number Docket # DHS-2024-0026. All comments received will be 
posted without change to http://www.regulations.gov, including any 
personal information provided.
    Docket: For access to the docket to read background documents or 
comments received, go to http://www.regulations.gov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) 
Office of Biometric Identity Management (OBIM) provides biometric 
compare, store, share, and analyze services to DHS and mission 
partners. In order to serve its mission partners, OBIM is focused on 
delivering accurate, timely, and high assurance biometric identity 
information and analysis. To achieve OBIM's overall goals and 
priorities, OBIM continually works to improve biometric services by 
keeping up with advancing biometrics in terms of new modalities, 
capabilities, and safeguarding information. OBIM is constantly 
investigating new developments to keep up with the speed of relevance 
and to support DHS operational missions through the development of 
standards for interagency implementation of biometrics.
    Because OBIM is congressionally mandated to manage the operation of 
the department's primary biometric repository and identification system 
that is used to identify and verify individuals crossing U.S. borders, 
it is mandatory for homeland security that the types of biometrics 
used, the technologies that capture them, and the way that OBIM 
safeguards them are advancing at a pace that keeps in front of bad 
actors. In the continuing appropriations act of 2013, OBIM was created 
from the former US-VISIT program to administer the DHS biometric 
database, as authorized by section 7208 of the Intelligence Reform And 
Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 (8 U.S.C. 1365b). See Consolidated And 
Further Continuing Appropriations Act of 2013, Public Law 113-6, 127 
Stat. 198 (2013). The Senate Explanatory Statement for the 
appropriation explains that ``OBIM is the lead entity within DHS 
responsible for biometric identity management services through its 
management of the Automated Biometric Identification System, or IDENT. 
OBIM assumes the most significant and cross-cutting responsibility from 
what was known as

[[Page 60444]]

US-VISIT--namely to serve customers across DHS, at other Federal 
agencies, in State and local law enforcement, and overseas through 
storage of biometric identities, recurrent matching against derogatory 
information, and other biometric expertise and services.'' The 
Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2017, Public Law 115-31, Division F, 
section 301, 131 Stat. 135, 418 (2017), mandated DHS to implement a 
facial recognition matching capability for IDENT, including the ability 
to search, store and match, that is independent of other biometric 
modalities but scalable for future needs. The 2017 Appropriations Act 
also called for DHS to ``demonstrate new agile projects focused on the 
ability to fuse biographic intelligence information with biometric 
data.''
    Thus, OBIM is constantly working through research and development 
efforts and standards development to improve biometric use, capture, 
and storage through investigation of the latest industry or academic 
advancements and how research findings can help improve performance of 
systems and policies that surround the use of the system. While 
continuing to improve its biometric services, OBIM has identified a 
need to understand the performance of new sensors and data emerging 
from these sensors. This understanding is crucial for advancing 
standards development and threshold guidance, as continuously evolving 
technologies impact the performance of the operational biometric 
matchers leveraged by the OBIM biometric repository. OBIM engages with 
performers, like John Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 
(JHU APL), National Institute of Standards Technology (NIST), and DHS 
Science And Technology (S&T) to collaborate and leverage the subject 
matter expertise available at each entity on biometric sensor 
evaluation to assess the performance of emerging biometric 
technologies.
    OBIM seeks an Office of Management and Budget (OMB) number to 
address the Paperwork Reduction Act requirements for OBIM's studies of 
emerging biometric technology. These OBIM studies support relevant 
biometrics collection projects so that OBIM can collaborate with 
performers to take on various biometric collection projects that will 
help to understand biometric collection device performance in various 
operational settings. These performers include academic and other 
research centers to design and execute studies that involve collection 
of different biometrics depending on the need and/or research question. 
Since OBIM operates and maintains the DHS biometric repository 
responsible for storing, sharing, and matching of different types of 
biometrics modalities (i.e., face, finger, iris, and future biometrics) 
it is imperative that OBIM understand biometric collection device 
performance so that we are better able to do the sharing and comparing 
portion of our homeland security mission. Because authentication/
identification accuracy depends on the reliability of the equipment 
used to capture data, OBIM is developing guidance on biometric capture 
quality, to enable the implementation of new capabilities that enhance 
national security and general public safety.
    OBIM has tasked the performers to help in this effort based on 
their extensive experience with biometric image collection and analysis 
developed from previous studies. The performers anticipate conducting 
several small-scale human research studies to support OBIM program 
goals. OBIM is interested in gathering more information in the 
following biometric modalities: face, fingerprint, palm print, iris, 
and voice. The purpose of this analysis is (1) to evaluate the current 
state of the art in biometrics and biometric capture, and (2) to 
provide insights on likely future developments in biometrics and 
identity intelligence technologies for OBIM to continue advancing 
research and development efforts, interoperability standards, and 
threshold guidance. The goal is to aid in the elaboration of a multi-
year strategy for both research and development for future 
technologies.
    As OBIM is not an academic institution and does not engage in 
research studies; OBIM relies on academic and other research centers to 
design and execute studies that involve collection of different 
biometrics (depending on the need and/or research question). These 
performers develop research questions and protocols to solve questions 
and provide information and guidance for OBIM to better influence 
capture, share, match, and storage of biometrics.
    OBIM aims to continue to improve biometric services within DHS and 
the necessary guidance associated with the implementation of these 
biometrics. The primary objective of the studies and use of information 
technology is to compare the performance of biometric sensors. 
Specifically, understanding the parameters that impact the quality of 
biometric image collection, which in turn, impacts the performance of 
downstream comparison algorithms.
    OBIM will assess new sensors, as the technologies are continuously 
evolving, and the inherent impact on the performance with the 
operational biometric matchers leveraged by the OBIM biometric 
repository. To perform these assessments, biometric collections will 
occur using emerging commercial off the shelf sensors (e.g., finger, 
face, iris, scanner, using a platen, clamshell, mobile application, 
etc.). The assessment and potential future implementation of advancing 
biometric sensors aims to improve the biometric collection experience 
for the customer and the agent to ensure quality biometrics are 
collected in an easy to use and time efficient manner to reduce burden 
on the customer and agent involved in the collection while still 
providing quality biometric images to allow for accurate comparison for 
mission decision support.
    Advancing technology will look to reduce burden by:
     Contactless modes of collection, reducing hygienic burden 
to individuals as a result of the current practices of touching the 
same surface.
     Simultaneous collection of multiple biometrics, reducing 
the burden to the customer and agent by eliminating multiple devices 
and thus decreasing the time for each additional biometric to be 
collected.
     Mobile collection sensors, reducing time burden of 
customer by eliminating the need to travel from site of encounter to a 
collection site.
    If any small businesses will be involved in the collections, study, 
or testing that are conducted surrounding biometric devices or matching 
performances, OBIM will work to ensure that guidance is streamlined and 
clear for all participants and all the time limits put forth for 
collection and testing are limited. No requests of performers, vendors, 
or participants will be made that will be prohibitive to the 
participation of small businesses.
    OBIM provides accurate, timely, and high assurance biometric 
identity services. As technology continues to advance at a rapid speed, 
new biometric collection devices and techniques continue to emerge. 
Variations in the technology leveraged in these new devices/sensors may 
impact the interoperability with the existing operational biometric 
comparison algorithms leveraged by DHS OBIM. Assessments of these 
technologies do not account for the impact on the legacy biometric 
information within the OBIM biometric repository and provides skewed 
performance results on emerging technology. Less frequent collections 
will impact the ability to identify issues related to the performance 
of the operational comparison algorithms with emerging

[[Page 60445]]

biometric collection technologies. This will hinder advancements of 
research and development, drafting updates to interoperability 
standards, and inform comparison algorithm threshold guidance to 
optimize biometric comparison results for mission decision points.
    There are no confidentiality assurances associated with this 
collection. However, coverage for the collection of this information is 
provided under DHS/ALL-041 External Biometric Records (EBR) System of 
Records, April 24, 2018, 83 FR 17829; DHS/NPPD/US-VISIT-0004-IDENT 
SORN, 72 FR 31080 (Jun. 5, 2007); DHS/ALL-043 Enterprise Biometric 
Administrative Records (EBAR) System of Records, March 16, 2020, 85 FR 
14955.
    The Office of Management and Budget is particularly interested in 
comments which:
    1. Evaluate whether the proposed collection of information is 
necessary for the proper performance of the functions of the agency, 
including whether the information will have practical utility;
    2. Evaluate the accuracy of the agency's estimate of the burden of 
the proposed collection of information, including the validity of the 
methodology and assumptions used;
    3. Enhance the quality, utility, and clarity of the information to 
be collected; and
    4. Minimize the burden of the collection of information on those 
who are to respond, including through the use of appropriate automated, 
electronic, mechanical, or other technological collection techniques or 
other forms of information technology, e.g., permitting electronic 
submissions of responses.

Analysis

    Agency: Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
    Title: DHS OBIM Biometric Technology Assessments.
    OMB Number: 1601-NEW.
    Frequency: Annually.
    Affected Public: Direct Service Providers, Educational 
Institutions, etc.
    Number of Respondents: 1,000.
    Estimated Time per Respondent: 1.5 hours.
    Total Burden Hours: 1,500 hours.

Robert Dorr,
Executive Director, Business Management Directorate.
[FR Doc. 2024-16341 Filed 7-24-24; 8:45 am]
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