A bipartisan group of senators is pushing to halt the expansion of facial recognition technology at airports in the United States and restrict its use as part of the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill that is making its way through Congress.
The proposal has pitted privacy advocates in both parties against consumer and industry groups that argue that the technology has the potential to vastly cut down on wait times at airports and increase convenience and safety.
Under a plan from the Transportation Security Administration, the government would expand facial recognition technology to more than 430 airports, from 25, as part of an effort to speed up the check-in process.
If facial recognition software is not expanded, the travel lobby says, passengers will end up waiting an additional 120 million hours in security lines each year.
Senator Merkley rejected the criticism, pointing out that his amendment would merely preserve the status quo.
“How does this create a delay? We’re just freezing in place what’s there right now,” he said. “We think it’s an important issue for Congress to wrestle with.”
Senator Kennedy said he was particularly concerned that government workers could potentially abuse the data after scanning millions of faces each day.
A spokeswoman for the T.S.A., said photographs were not stored or saved after a positive ID match, “except in a limited testing environment for evaluation of the effectiveness of the technology.” She also said the agency would not use the technology for surveillance or any law enforcement purpose.
@GloomyOctopusDemocrat2wks2W
I have had to use this technology repeatedly over the last 2 months. It does not make travel "more efficient" - it actually seems to create longer lines for all travelers but especially those with TSA Pre-Check and Clear. Wait times have gone up 4x since these facial recognition pads were put in
I fly for work a lot and am conscious of privacy concerns. TSA people have occasionally pushed back when I ask to not use the camera, and it takes the same amount of time if not longer than having the agent run your card. The only difference is TSA now gets your biometric data for free to sell to a data broker who will sell it to whoever is willing to pay for it. Data markets are a frighteningly un-regulated space.
@Supr3meCourtTomForward2wks2W
At first this all seemed dystopian but the reality is the US government already has photos of me, submitted by me when I applied for a passport. I am not really giving them something they didn’t have before.
An unbelievable fuss about nothing. I have a news flash for the Senators. Everyone who enters the airport security zone has to show a government photo ID.
@RightsJerryLibertarian2wks2W
Recently I saw many passengers in the tsa line at DFW upset about being required to have their picture taken after having their passport or other ID scanned. The whole scenario reeked of police state.
@ISIDEWITH2wks2W
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