back to article TSA’s airport facial-recog tech faces audit probe

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 …

  1. Woodnag

    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".

    1. UnknownUnknown

      Re: Privacy?

      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.

      1. Chet Mannly

        Re: Privacy?

        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.

  2. Grumpy Fellow
    Thumb Up

    Opting out seems an available option in my experience

    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.

    1. UnknownUnknown

      Re: Opting out seems an available option in my experience

      This muchly.

    2. tekHedd

      Opting out == unsubscribe

      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.)

      1. Ace2 Silver badge

        Re: Opting out == unsubscribe

        I opt out, every time. Mostly the people behind me say, “What? You can do that?”

        Fuck all facial recognition tech. It’s trash.

    3. Chet Mannly

      Re: Opting out seems an available option in my experience

      That is not what is being looked at - it's the mass surveillance in the airport that cannot be opted out of that is being examined, not at security checks/boarding.

  3. cbrisuda

    Boiling a frog

    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.

    1. UnknownUnknown

      Re: Boiling a frog

      Facial rec v’s a TSA monkey checking your passport v face closer?

      You are still being tracked/surveiled through the border!

    2. DS999 Silver badge

      Re: Boiling a frog

      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.

      1. Ace2 Silver badge

        Re: Boiling a frog

        And what the failure rate is for white people vs brown people.

        1. UnknownUnknown

          Re: Boiling a frog

          They aren’t looking for white undesirables- illegals, terrorists or smugglers..

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Big Elon

    is watching you.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    About time. Next they can ban airlines like United from using it for boarding at the gate.

    1. DS999 Silver badge

      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.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Nonsense. The ones at the gate are private and operated by United Airlines.

        1. tekHedd

          "The ones at the gate are private"

          ..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.

          1. Chet Mannly

            Re: "The ones at the gate are private"

            Whay would they need to? There's security cameras running facial rec all over the airport

        2. DS999 Silver badge

          The ones right at the jet bridge entrance might be operated by United, but you're in denial if you think the airport itself doesn't operate cameras covering EVERYTHING in the departure gate area from multiple angles.

      2. Chet Mannly

        "You don't think there are cameras there taking photos of everyone boarding the flight?"

        Do you not understand it is those cameras they are looking into and want to stop?

  6. Arthur Daily

    In Australia (And Germany?)

    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.

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