Privacy?
TSA: "Photos are not stored or saved after a positive ID match has been made". Bet they are passed on to NCIC and/or NSA. I'd prefer "Images are only retained for the purpose and duration of ID match and then deleted".
The Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General has launched an audit of the Transportation Security Administration's use of facial recognition technology at US airports, following criticism from lawmakers and privacy advocates. Homeland Security Inspector General Joseph Cuffari notified a bipartisan group of US …
The article is horseshit - there is plenty of signage around TSA airports saying about alternatives - for ‘Merican’s only - to facial recognition.
https://www.tsa.gov/news/press/factsheets/facial-recognition-technology#:~:text=Standard%20ID%20credential%20verification%20is,for%20choosing%20not%20to%20participate.
Every person who enters a US airport is run through facial recognition and identified by the system - that mass surveilance is the problem.
What you linked to is opting out of that identification being then used for things like boarding, not from being identified and tracked in the first place.
I fly several times a week out of US airports and have yet to see a TSA checkpoint where photo opt out wasn't a clearly displayed option. From a flight security option I prefer that system's 99.7 % accuracy against what even a trained TSA officer could likely muster. You don't lose your place in line if you opt out, the TSA officer just squints and looks closer at your ID and your face. I don't understand what I'm giving up here. With either automated or manual ID any government organization already knows what flight I am on care of the airlines' passenger list reporting. The identification is just a quicker way of proving that my ticket ID matches my real life ID, which is something I value in my fellow passengers. I opt in because the ID system is faster. Now, Ring doorbells are another story. When I steal Amazon packages from front porches I prefer to remain anonymous and believe that is a fundamental right under the 1st amendment.
I can't think of a better way to get flagged as a person of interest, scanned, and stored with a little marker saying "didn't want to be scanned" than opting out of facial recognition scans. This is like clicking the "unsubscribe" link on unsolicited spam from companies you've never heard of. All you've done is confirm that you're someone they're interested in.
I mean, it's probably illegal, but since when has that made a difference?
(Also, sarcastic pro-Ring "I like having a cop on every doorstep" sting at the end there, nice touch.)
I’m very pleased to see this. I’ve been concerned about the use of facial recognition at airports since I first saw it. My concern is that it’s a boiling the frog situation. We’re so used to intrusions and surveillance in the airport context, so it’s no big deal to add facial recognition to that situation. But then we get used to facial recognition and it’ll spread. I believe there needs to be robust debate and civic engagement on the issue of facial recognition by government entities, and I’m pleased to see that someone is working on it.
They already have your photo from the ID you are required to have, so what difference does it make whether they try to match that photo with a picture of your actual face? There are security cameras all over airports, they have plenty of chances to get additional photos of you beyond that ID matching so any privacy concerns over that particular aspect (especially since you can opt out based on Grumpy Fellow's post above) are pointless.
What I'd be far more concerned about is what they do with the photo ID mismatches, even if it is only 0.3% as claimed. Do they have TSA agents check your ID manually, and if it is a simple error hopefully they let you go through with only an extra minute of delay, or do they hustle you off to an interrogation room and make you miss your flight? I'd also want to know the stats on those mismatches, how many are real mismatches - i.e. someone trying to fly on another's ID.
Why?
You don't think there are cameras there taking photos of everyone boarding the flight? That's going to happen regardless of whether they use an automated system to check your face against your ID or have a gate agent do it.
If you want to ban cameras from taking your photo in public places, let alone quasi public places with high security concerns like airports, you have your work cut out for you.
..and there is *no* precedent suggesting that the NSA would slurp data from large, strategic, private databases. None at all. ;) Certainly they never get hacked, exposed, leaked, sold in a merger, or otherwise compromised.
Innocent people have a lot to learn, this year.
They did NOT get 99.7%, ever. Have an independent mob validate that number. Demand a refund or ask the question what was the matching fuzz dialed way down to stop false positives/negatives. I have also been to overseas airports, that stopped - when outgoing data was DOWN. Remember data deletion is not the same as data overwrite.