Facial recognition technology at airports is being called into question after a viral Twitter exchange highlighted the privacy concerns associated with the systems, which are rapidly being deployed by airlines across the U.S.
Writer MacKenzie Fegan was startled when her photo was taken by facial recognition cameras as she boarded her international JetBlue flight.
Fegan confronted JetBlue about the experience in a lengthy Twitter thread, asking questions about how the system operated, but the airline didn’t provide many answers.
It comes as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security recently said it hopes to expand use of facial recognition at airports to scan 97 percent of all passengers departing the country by 2023.
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Facial recognition technology at airports is being called into question after a viral Twitter exchange highlighted the privacy concerns associated with the systems
‘I just boarded an international @JetBlue flight,’ Fegan wrote on Twitter. ‘Instead of scanning my boarding pass or handing over my passport, I looked into a camera before being allowed down the jet bridge.
‘Did facial recognition replace boarding passes, unbeknownst to me? Did I consent to this?’
JetBlue’s official Twitter account then responded to her by saying: ‘You’re able to opt out of this procedure, MacKenzie. Sorry if this made you uncomfortable.’
Users can avoid the facial recognition cameras altogether by using their boarding pass, but they have little way to opt out from being part of the database that verifies their identity.
Here’s how the technology works: Users approach a box-shaped display with a facial recognition camera mounted on it and have their photo taken.
Within a matter of seconds, their photo is run against a database populated with photos from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to verify their identity.
If their photo is a match, the display shows a green checkmark, allowing them to proceed onto the airplane.
It means travelers can board the plane without the need for a boarding pass or passport.
As Fegan’s tweets underscore, there are reasons to be concerned about how CBP photos are collected and whether or not travelers have given the appropriate level of consent to be a part of the database.
CBP’s website details how and where it sources these photos from. It compares the photo taken by facial recognition cameras with ‘existing images from passports, visas and other travel documents.’
It may also source photos from photos taken by CBP during ‘entry inspection’, as well as ‘from previous DHS encounters.’
Airlines have couched facial recognition technology as a matter of added convenience for the traveler, but the CBP website makes it clear that these systems are being used as part of a ‘border security mission.’
Airlines couch facial recognition technology as a matter of added convenience for travelers, but CBP makes it clear that these systems are being used as part of a ‘border security mission’
In 2004, a congressional mandate required CBP to develop a ‘biometric entry and exit system,’ which presumably includes the facial recognition scanners being deployed by airlines.
Since then, the technology has been tested by JetBlue and Delta at the John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City, the Los Angeles International Airport and the Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Washington, D.C., among others.
‘As part of the border security mission, the agency is deploying new technologies to verify each traveler’s identity – both upon arrival in, and departure from the United States,’ the CBP website states.
However, many questions still remain as to how the data is managed and stored.
CBP has pledged to keep the data for no more than 14 days, but it remains unclear how long airlines are holding onto the photos and information collected by its facial recognition systems, according to Gizmodo.
This has caught the attention of privacy experts who say the technology has the potential to be abused.
‘We have the government using this extremely powerful and dangerous biometric face recognition, which really has the potential to become a serious technology of control,’ Jay Stanley, a senior policy analyst at the American Civil Liberties Union, told Lifehacker.
‘They’re using it in an unnecessary way, like hunting a mosquito with a bazooka.’
Fegan had similar concerns, noting in a reply to JetBlue: ‘It sounds like opting out isn’t really an option.
‘I can not go through the scanner, but my data will have already been accessed and loaded into the database.’
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties advocacy group, called for greater regulation of facial recognition technology at airports.
‘It’s unprecedented for the government to collect and share this kind of data, with this level of detail, with this many agencies and private partners,’ the EFF said.
‘We need proper oversight and regulation to ensure our privacy is protected.’
HOW DOES FACIAL RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY WORK?
Facial recognition software works by matching real time images to a previous photograph of a person.
Each face has approximately 80 unique nodal points across the eyes, nose, cheeky and mouth which distinguish one person from another.
A digital video camera measures the distance between various points on the human face, such as the width of the nose, depth of the eye sockets, distance between the eyes and shape of the jawline.
A different smart surveillance system (pictured) can scan 2 billion faces within seconds has been revealed in China. The system connects to millions of CCTV cameras and uses artificial intelligence to pick out targets. The military is working on applying a similar version of this with AI to track people across the country
This produces a unique numerical code that can then be linked with a matching code gleaned from a previous photograph.
A facial recognition system used by officials in China connects to millions of CCTV cameras and uses artificial intelligence to pick out targets.
Experts believe that facial recognition technology will soon overtake fingerprint technology as the most effective way to identify people.
