More US Airports are Scanning Faces. But a New Bill Could Limit the Practice (msn.com) 16
An anonymous reader shared this repost from the Washington Post:
It's becoming standard practice at a growing number of U.S. airports: When you reach the front of the security line, an agent asks you to step up to a machine that scans your face to check whether it matches the face on your identification card. Travelers have the right to opt out of the face scan and have the agent do a visual check instead — but many don't realize that's an option.
Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) think it should be the other way around. They plan to introduce a bipartisan bill that would make human ID checks the default, among other restrictions on how the Transportation Security Administration can use facial recognition technology. The Traveler Privacy Protection Act, shared with the Tech Brief on Wednesday ahead of its introduction, is a narrower version of a 2023 bill by the same name that would have banned the TSA's use of facial recognition altogether. This one would allow the agency to continue scanning travelers' faces, but only if they opt in, and would bar the technology's use for any purpose other than verifying people's identities. It would also require the agency to immediately delete the scans of general boarding passengers once the check is complete.
"Facial recognition is incredibly powerful, and it is being used as an instrument of oppression around the world to track dissidents whose opinion governments don't like," Merkley said in a phone interview Wednesday, citing China's use of the technology on the country's Uyghur minority. "It really creates a surveillance state," he went on. "That is a massive threat to freedom and privacy here in America, and I don't think we should trust any government with that power...."
[The TSA] began testing face scans as an option for people enrolled in "trusted traveler" programs, such as TSA PreCheck, in 2021. By 2022, the program quietly began rolling out to general boarding passengers. It is now active in at least 84 airports, according to the TSA's website, with plans to bring it to more than 400 airports in the coming years. The agency says the technology has proved more efficient and accurate than human identity checks. It assures the public that travelers' face scans are not stored or saved once a match has been made, except in limited tests to evaluate the technology's effectiveness.
The bill would also bar the TSA from providing worse treatment to passengers who refuse not to participate, according to FedScoop, and would also forbid the agency from using face-scanning technology to target people or conduct mass surveillance: "Folks don't want a national surveillance state, but that's exactly what the TSA's unchecked expansion of facial recognition technology is leading us to," Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., a co-sponsor of the bill and a longtime critic of the government's facial recognition program, said in a statement...
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general initiated an audit of TSA's facial recognition program. Merkley had previously led a letter from a bipartisan group of senators calling for the watchdog to open an investigation into TSA's facial recognition plans, noting that the technology is not foolproof and effective alternatives were already in use.
Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) and John Neely Kennedy (R-Louisiana) think it should be the other way around. They plan to introduce a bipartisan bill that would make human ID checks the default, among other restrictions on how the Transportation Security Administration can use facial recognition technology. The Traveler Privacy Protection Act, shared with the Tech Brief on Wednesday ahead of its introduction, is a narrower version of a 2023 bill by the same name that would have banned the TSA's use of facial recognition altogether. This one would allow the agency to continue scanning travelers' faces, but only if they opt in, and would bar the technology's use for any purpose other than verifying people's identities. It would also require the agency to immediately delete the scans of general boarding passengers once the check is complete.
"Facial recognition is incredibly powerful, and it is being used as an instrument of oppression around the world to track dissidents whose opinion governments don't like," Merkley said in a phone interview Wednesday, citing China's use of the technology on the country's Uyghur minority. "It really creates a surveillance state," he went on. "That is a massive threat to freedom and privacy here in America, and I don't think we should trust any government with that power...."
[The TSA] began testing face scans as an option for people enrolled in "trusted traveler" programs, such as TSA PreCheck, in 2021. By 2022, the program quietly began rolling out to general boarding passengers. It is now active in at least 84 airports, according to the TSA's website, with plans to bring it to more than 400 airports in the coming years. The agency says the technology has proved more efficient and accurate than human identity checks. It assures the public that travelers' face scans are not stored or saved once a match has been made, except in limited tests to evaluate the technology's effectiveness.
The bill would also bar the TSA from providing worse treatment to passengers who refuse not to participate, according to FedScoop, and would also forbid the agency from using face-scanning technology to target people or conduct mass surveillance: "Folks don't want a national surveillance state, but that's exactly what the TSA's unchecked expansion of facial recognition technology is leading us to," Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., a co-sponsor of the bill and a longtime critic of the government's facial recognition program, said in a statement...
Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security inspector general initiated an audit of TSA's facial recognition program. Merkley had previously led a letter from a bipartisan group of senators calling for the watchdog to open an investigation into TSA's facial recognition plans, noting that the technology is not foolproof and effective alternatives were already in use.
So is your self checkout (Score:2)
That ship sailed a long time ago
Opt-in would be getting in fast lane ... (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
That's already the standard in a lot of countries. All the fast lane does is check that your image matches the one in the identity document, nothing more. And by fast I mean actually fast, not just "called fast" - time from leaving the plane to picking up my luggage can be as little as five minutes.
The weird thing with this is that it was the US who forced the entire world to adopt biometric passports post-911, and now they're left behind using humans squinting at you at the end of long queues at their b
Why does anyone care?? (Score:1)
I don't get the complaints about using FedFaceID by default for travelers.
It has benefits - travelers don't have to dig out IDs, the faceID scan is quicker than the ID check was so you can get people through security faster (although really they are usually rate limited more by the luggage scanning that comes after).
If you don't want your face scanned you can opt out really easily and they just check the ID (my wife tried this recently to check) with no other impact.
Avoiding a facial scan there just makes s
Re: (Score:2)
This bill is not about any kind of personal liberty. It's a jobs program for people that can't do anything more useful for society.
Not gonna happen (Score:4, Interesting)
Even if this manages to get through Congress (extremely unlikely), it'll get vetoed. Trump's team already has put plans into place to photograph everyone crossing the US border - legally - by car. You really think they're gonna let airplane passengers slide?
https://www.wired.com/story/cb... [wired.com]
Re: (Score:2)
Even if this manages to get through Congress (extremely unlikely), it'll get vetoed. Trump's team already has put plans into place to photograph everyone crossing the US border - legally - by car. You really think they're gonna let airplane passengers slide?
https://www.wired.com/story/cb... [wired.com]
The TSA has nothing to do with the border, a place where 100% of checks are done by a human, even if scanned by machine by a completely different department. Try again. Getting a quick post in doesn't help if you look ignorant doing so.
Whatever I do it will be wrong (Score:2)
I accept that no matter what I do at airport security it will be wrong. This is, according to some sources, by design. Keeps the bad guys on their toes. Something like that.
As a Canadian the only biometric ID I have is my passport. Despite the pressure to do so, I do not use it for domestic flights. International flights only. For U.S. domestic flights I use my drivers license. For Canadian domestic flights, my pilots license.
...laura
Work Cameras (Score:2)
Too late to protect privacy (Score:2)
The government has too many different was to track people: Face recognition, cell phones, online activity, credit cards, cars, DNA, fingerprints, Real ID, traffic cameras, social media, home "smart" devices that monitor audio, doorbell camera, etc etc. Combine that with the rapidly advancing technology for processing and finding patterns in huge data sets and privacy from the government no longer exists. It might have been possible to stop this 20 years ago, but that ship has sailed and gone over the hor
Re: (Score:2)
The government has too many different was to track people
Google and Apple can do it easier and just give that data to the government.
Re: Too late to protect privacy (Score:2)
Yes l, that is yet another source
contemptible (Score:1)
at this point "limiting the practice" only means they'll put guard rails on how it can be used in court. It'll still be used the other ways, they will just not be admitted and enforcement will be given over to the sort of person who likes that kind of thing.
honestly it's all so disgusting, and there's nothing to do but wait for the big one. Trying to talk about it just gets you labelled a troll, by the sort of monkeys yelling "treason!" at harry selden's trial. Shitslinging knowitalls who in actual fact