International standard for biometric bias measurement unanimously approved

A new international standard for how to test demographic differentials in biometric systems for bias has been approved, and is expected to be published within weeks.

ISO/IEC 19795-10 was co-edited by Yevgeniy Sirotin and John Howard of the Maryland Test Facility, the latter of whom announced the unanimous approval of the standard in a LinkedIn post.

The draft went to the committee draft stage to collect comments from national standards bodies in April.

“Part 10: Quantifying biometric system performance variation across demographic groups” defines “aggregate equitability measure” as a performance metric, along with “comparison score differential measure,” which can be either mated or non-mated. “Differential treatment” is a concept introduced for a set of actions taken for biometric enrollment based on the enrollee’s demographics. The appropriate metrics to use for a complete understanding of system equitability have been discussed by the community at length.

Scientists who contributed to the standard make up a lengthy list of influential academic, government and industry researchers. They include MdTF Director of the Identity and Data Sciences Lab Jerry Tipton, DHS Biometric and Identity Technology Center Director Arun Vemury, NIST Computer Scientist Patrick Grother, Professors Michael Schuckers and Christophe Busch and Idemia’s Pierre Gacon.

Congratulations on the development rolled in under Howards post from another group of influential biometrics researchers and practitioners, including Identity Strategy Partners CEO Janice Kephart, TSA Identity Management Capability Manager Jason Lim, and Algorithmic Justice League Co-founder and Gender Shades Author Joy Buolamwini, and Paravision CEO Doug Aley.

The new standard is expected to be incorporated into various system requirements and other standards, including a new ICAO biometric passport standard.

Article Topics

biometric bias  |  biometrics  |  biometrics research  |  demographic fairness  |  ISO standards  |  Maryland Test Facility (MdTF)