Face-Scanning Loses by a Nose in Palm Beach

Rio writes: "A story from myCFnow.com reports that Palm Beach International Airport officials said face-scanning technology will not become part of their airport's security system." Looks like the ACLU was right. Checking a database of 15 employees, the technology gave false-negatives -- failed to recognize the test subjects -- over 50% of the time. A spokesperson said, "There's room for improvement." The Pentagon said the same thing in February. The false-positive rate is more important -- it isn't mentioned, but even if it were just 0.1%, Bruce Schneier argues, it'd be useless.

what does this do

[vectus]

but delay its deployment for a couple years? this isn't really a victory at all.. I mean, I bet this will only delay the technology two years.. maybe less.

If anything, it should be a call for all Americans to protest this kind of thing (should you disagree with it).

False positive rate

[Triskaidekaphobia]

A similar system in Florida [nando.net] (not an airport, but probably a vaguely-similar number of people) had 14 false positives in the first 4 days of operation.
(Two of the false positives even got the sex of the suspect wrong)

Since they state that it was the first days, perhaps it just needed tuning?

False Positives are OK

[MikeD83]

How many times have you gone to a store and bought an item with an electronic anti-theft tag and not had it removed properly only to be stopped once you begin to exit. A loud alarm goes off, and everyone in the front of the store and looks at you wondering... is that a thief? Extremely embarassing. False Positives happen all the time. As long as they are dealt with in a timely manner it is still OK; and already deemed acceptable by MOST of society.

Re:False Positives are OK

[Phroggy]

Actually, true story: I was at Fred Meyer's a few weeks ago (for those not fortunate enough to live in the Northwest, they sell pretty much everything, at decent quality and decent prices). In addition to my groceries, I'd picked up a pair of khaki pants. They've now got those self-checkout scanner things, in addition to the regular checkout lines, so I decided I'd try it. I didn't do so well. Anyway, in particular, I hadn't noticed that the pants had a security tag on them, and I neglected to remove it. I'm not sure how I would have removed it anyway, but the really large man keeping an eye on the self-checkout lines would surely have taken care of it.

So I cram the pants and half my groceries into my backpack, the other half in plastic bags. I leave. The alarm goes off. It occurs to me that the pants must have a security tag that I didn't remove. I glance around, and nobody even looks my direction. I proceed to leave the building.

Then I remember that I've forgotten to buy a bus pass. I go back in. The alarm goes off. I head over to the customer service counter, and shell out $56 for a little card that will enable me to get to/from work for the next month. I leave again, and the alarm goes off. I wait a few minutes for the bus, and go home.

I completely forget about the security tag until I'm wearing the pants and am on my way to catch the bus to work. I've gotten about a block when I hear a noise as I'm walking. Sure enough, there it is. I run home, try unsuccessfully to get it off, give up, change pants, and run to catch the bus. I arrive at work 15 minutes late. When I get home I finish mutilating the tag. Tough little buggers.

So anyway, the moral of the story is that those little tags are absolutely worthless if store security is asleep at the wheel.

Human accuracy

[Anonymous Coward]

Has anybody actually checked how acurate a human is at this task? Find somebody who has only seen these people in photographs and see how many people they can positivly identify. At the end of the day, solutions such as this depend on human 'backup'.

If this system catches just 50% of attackers who would otherwise get through, is this not a step in the right direction?

Sounds like a poor example of a scientific study to me!

Hey, this technology is great

[Rogerborg]

Because when they finally get it working right, with a really high degree of accuracy, then it'll positively identify me, and I'll be allowed to exercise my rights to have and bear arms on an airline for the purpose of forming a well ordered militia. Surely this situation exemplifies the purpose of the second amendment; an armed populace defending itself from attack.

What's that you say? That this won't happen? That security will still be something performed by bored and disinterested employees on the ground, not by the people under direct threat? That all this technology will do is to remove rights and further entrench the mentality that We, the People must be protected by a tiny minority of largely unanswerable and self appointed professionals.

Sometimes I wonder why we bother even pretending that the Constitution still applies. If anyone can think of a more relevant application for the Second Amendment short of a full scale invasion, I'd like to hear it.

Society will pay, Bushment won't

[Jeppe Salvesen]

Seriously, did the airport security increase that much post 911? The wage is still so low that the airport security corporations compete with McDonalds for manpower.

If you start to think about it, wouldn't you say that the Bush administration should be thankful for the 911 attack? Now, Bush can do what he does best, show strong leadership. We all remember his campaign speeches, right?

However, what kinds of strong leadership has he given? He has reconfirmed his alliance with Pakistan, the country run by a general that got his power in a military coup, under the banner of "protecting freedom". He needed to do this in order to punish the Taliban.

Now, his poor judgement may very well be biting him in his ass. Pakistan has long offered support for the resistance movement in India-controlled Kashmir. How this support has manifested itself in real life is a matter of debate. However, India does not think Pakistan has done enough to crack down on the separatists in Kashmir after the attack on the Indian parliament in December. Consider it comparable to a band of terrorists attempting to storm capital hill, and then have the nation the terrorists came from refusing to stop supporting the same forces.

What else goes on in Pakistan? Ever once in a while, you'll see small or large reports about how parts of the Pakistani intelligence service is sympathetic to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Wonder how Mullah Omar got away? He travelled with a pile of money, paying off warlords that the USA trusted for free passage.

Rather than effectively fighting terrorism abroad, your government seems to favor disclosing every non-specific, non-corroborated terrorist threat, complete with security checkpoints that close down this or that because of a suspicious package.

It's looking bleak, folks. Any good conspiracy theorist (or reader of 1984 by G. Orwell) will tell you that keeping people afraid is a good way of controlling their ability to think rationally.

Oh, and would you like to know what I believe to be the ultimate terrorist strike? Trigger a landslide off the continental shelf along the Californian coast. According to Discovery Channel, the ground shows signs of previous landslides. One or more large-scale landslides could trigger a huge tsunami that could wipe out portions of the coastal areas along the Californian coast. What materials are required? Honestly, I don't know, but I'm guessing a few recreational boats with primitive depth charges or timed mines would have a pretty good chance of triggering something if they had a good geological report.

I hope I didn't make any Californians piss their pants. I'm just speculating. And I hope I won't have any government agency knocking on my door tonite.

Then again, the most effective portion of the WTC attack might be the fallout. America is marginalizing itself, giving the rest of us ever fewer reasons to really like the American government. (I like Americans, btw).