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The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is piloting the use of facial recognition technology in 25 airports across the U.S. The program confirms travelers match their existing photo IDs.
TSA, which screens roughly 2.4 million passengers daily, says it is piloting the technology to improve the accuracy of identity verification without slowing down the speed at which passengers move through the checkpoints.
The agency said it plans to expand its facial recognition program to more than 400 airports over the next several years.
Greg Glaser, a digital privacy expert and attorney with Children’s Health Defense (CHD), called the rollout of such technology “dystopian.”
“What we’re witnessing is a loss of privacy,” Glaser told viewers in a recent episode of “Good Morning CHD,” adding, “and this is a new form of ‘replacement theology’ [in which] …you have to prove that you’re you, and you can only prove that you’re you with a computer, with a digital scan. There has to be a computer version of you before we even recognize that you exist.”
Glaser also warned that there’s “no going back” with this type of technology. “Once you go in this direction, it will become mandatory,” he said.
Albert Fox Cahn, founder of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project, or STOP, in December 2022, told The Washington Post something similar:
“What we often see with these biometric programs is they are only optional in the introductory phases — and over time we see them becoming standardized and nationalized and eventually compulsory …
“There is no place more coercive to ask people for their consent than an airport.”
Glaser said Congress did not issue a mandate requiring TSA to adopt facial recognition technology. “TSA is doing it because it wants to do this,” he said.
TSA says you can opt out — but can you?
According to the TSA, the program is voluntary:
“Signs near the checkpoint will provide notice to passengers on how to participate in the pilot, in addition to providing instructions on how to decline having their photo taken, although passenger IDs will still have to be scanned through the device for identity verification.”
However, according to the Post — which reported that “There are also supposed to be signs around informing you of your rights” — it’s unclear whether those passengers who opt out will pay a price, as in being moved to a slow line, getting an extra pat down or “a mark” on their record.
Even a sitting U.S. senator had difficulty when trying to opt out of the facial recognition check at Washington’s Reagan National Airport, according to another Post article, published last month.
Glaser said that a number of mainstream privacy groups, including STOP, are pushing for stronger opt-out legislation when it comes to digital surveillance and screening.
But Glaser said citizens must go further by demanding what’s called “opt-in” legislation which grants others only the right to collect facial information because citizens have “specifically opted in” to the endeavor.
He said:
“You’re just going to be living your life, right? You’re going to be using roads, you’re going to be on streets. You might use an airport, you’re going to be using different services like Google.
“And in the process, all of these places are going to be collecting a ton of information on you and you’re not going to know it. You’re not going to know what they’re collecting on you or even how it’s used.
“So unless you’ve specifically opted in and they’ve given you a truthful statement telling you how they’re going to use the information … you lack the fundamental safeguards.”
Regarding the encroachment of digital surveillance into people’s lives, Glaser said he thinks things “are going to get a lot worse before they get better” — but that “they will get better eventually.”
He added, “We’re going to learn a very important lesson: that the right to opt in is absolutely precious and it comes in harmony with our already existing right, under the Fourth Amendment, to privacy.”
What happens when TSA is hacked?
“According to the TSA, all of their databases are encrypted and protected against hacks, blockchain and so forth,” said Glaser. “But we already know that’s not correct because government databases have been hacked.”
Once hacks occur, it’s possible for citizens’ personal identification information to get sold on the dark web. “The info that they [the TSA] collect can be hacked, used [and] sold further,” he said.
“There’s a whole underground black market for this information, for scandalous reasons,” he added.
Glaser believes that the use of facial recognition and other forms of digital surveillance technologies will expand into other facets of society. “This will not be limited to airports … it’s also going to come to cars and roads.”
As of March, at least 20 stadiums and venues used facial recognition technology.
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