{"id":1881,"date":"2019-06-08T20:46:21","date_gmt":"2019-06-09T00:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/melange.dmaculate.me\/?p=1881"},"modified":"2023-07-28T16:19:53","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T20:19:53","slug":"facial-recognition-deployed-at-major-us-airports-without-public-comment-or-checks-and-balances-but-us-citizens-can-opt-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/melange.dmaculate.me\/home\/2019\/06\/08\/facial-recognition-deployed-at-major-us-airports-without-public-comment-or-checks-and-balances-but-us-citizens-can-opt-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Facial recognition deployed at major US airports without public comment or checks and balances, but US citizens can opt out."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u201cThis is opening the door to an extraordinarily more intrusive and granular level of government control.\u201d<\/p>\n

Source: The US Government Will Use Facial Recognition In Top Airports<\/a><\/p>\n

In the absence of laws or legal precedents addressing the constitutionality of its use, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has deployed facial recognition technology at at least 17 airports. Airlines<\/a> and governments<\/a> of other countries are doing this as well, in a vacuum of international regulations to protect travelers’ privacy and information security.<\/p>\n

US citizens can opt out of facial recognition at domestic airports, EFF explains how<\/a>. Non-US citizens do not have this option, nor do US citizens at foreign airports.<\/p>\n

AirlinePrivacy.com<\/a> shows the airlines that use facial recognition and those that don’t.<\/p>\n

In the US, there are no laws governing the use of facial recognition. Courts have not ruled on whether it constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. There are no checks, no balances. Yet government agencies are working quickly to roll it out in every major airport in the country. It\u2019s already being used in seventeen international airports, among them: Atlanta, New York City, Boston, San Jose, Chicago, and two airports in Houston. Many major airlines are on board with the idea \u2014 Delta, JetBlue, British Airways, Lufthansa, and American Airlines. Airport operations companies, including Los Angeles World Airports, Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, Mineta San Jose International Airport, Miami International Airport, and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, are also involved.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

CBP says it allows U.S. citizens to decline facial verification and to instead have their identities confirmed through the usual manual boarding process. \u201cCBP works with airline and airport partners to incorporate notifications and processes into their current business models, including signage and gate announcements, to ensure transparency of the biometric process,\u201d an agency spokesperson said in an email to BuzzFeed News. But of 12 flights observed by OIG during its audit in 2017, only 16 passengers declined to participate.<\/p>\n

According to Delta, less than 2% of its weekly 25,000 passengers going through the Atlanta airport\u2019s Terminal F, which features \u201ccurb to gate\u201d facial recognition<\/a> systems, opt out of using the tech.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

The government\u2019s end vision, according to an early \u201cBiometric Pathway\u201d document<\/a> from December 2016, is for CBP to build a vast \u201cbackend communication portal to support TSA, airport, and airline partners in their efforts to use facial images as a single biometric key for identifying and matching travelers to their identities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will enable … verified biometrics for check-in, baggage drop, security checkpoints, lounge access, boarding, and other processes,\u201d the document says. \u201cThis will create simplified and standardized wayfinding across airports.\u201d<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

According to the Concept of Operations document<\/a>, \u201cBy partnering with other stakeholders, CBP can facilitate a large-scale transformation of air travel that, by using biometrics, will make air travel more secure \u2026 providing increased certainty as to the identity of airline travelers at multiple points in the travel process\u201d and \u201cbuild additional integrity into the immigration system.\u201d Biometric capture, CBP explained, would be \u201cintegrated\u201d into the \u201csystems and business processes\u201d of other stakeholders, including private ones like airports and airlines.<\/p>\n

The idea is for CBP to be able to scale up the effort considerably. \u201cInstead of a program that is built and developed exclusively by CBP, and that benefits only CBP missions,\u201d the document states, \u201cthe result is a series of interconnected initiatives undertaken by multiple stakeholders, both public and private, and through which all will significantly benefit.\u201d<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

This is not the first time DHS has seemingly overstepped its boundaries. In the mid-2000s, EPIC sued to obtain records, describing problems with the TSA\u2019s airport body scanners: invasive screening practices, potential health risks, traveler complaints, and more. Then in 2011, EPIC sued again, asking the courts to compel DHS to undertake a public notice-and-comment rulemaking on the use of body scanners. As EPIC argued, “The TSA has acted outside of its regulatory authority and with profound disregard for the statutory and constitutional rights of air travelers.” The DC Circuit agreed, and for the first time, the public was allowed to comment<\/a> on the body scanner program.<\/p>\n

But this time, DHS appears to be arguing, a facial recognition program at the border is so critical that it should be implemented, even without going through all the steps of the rulemaking process. Three<\/a> internal<\/a> documents<\/a> seen by BuzzFeed News state, \u201cCBP will transform the way it identifies travelers by shifting the key to unlocking a traveler\u2019s record from biographic identifiers to biometric ones \u2014 primarily a traveler\u2019s face.\u201d<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

As of the time of publication, the airports included in CBP\u2019s biometric facial recognition program are in Atlanta, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Washington (Dulles and Reagan), Boston, Fort Lauderdale, Houston Hobby, Dallas\/Fort Worth, JFK, Miami, San Jose, Orlando, and Detroit.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the absence of laws or legal precedents addressing the constitutionality of its use, U.S. Customs and Border Patrol has deployed facial recognition technology at at least 17 airports. Airlines and governments of other countries are doing this as well, in a vacuum of international regulations to protect travelers’ privacy and information security. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[51,111,280,341],"class_list":["post-1881","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cbp","tag-facial-recognition","tag-privacy","tag-surveillance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":113,"url":"https:\/\/melange.dmaculate.me\/home\/2016\/07\/29\/survey-your-views-on-us-customs-plan-to-search\/","url_meta":{"origin":1881,"position":0},"title":"SURVEY: Your views on US Customs’ plan to search your social media at the border","author":"aslam","date":"July 29, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"mostlysignssomeportents: Deji from Access Now writes, \u201cYou remember that spooky story about the U.S. screening everyone\u2019s social media \u2018presence\u2019 at the border? 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