For those of you who travel in the united states, you’ll know they now have facial recognition scans when checking your id. You can opt out by telling them you don’t want to take the picture. I do every time, but I wonder what the point of the scan is if you can just opt out. That given, why do you think they do it? What prevents them from forcing you to do it?
To those of you who live outside of the united states, have you seen a similar increase in security at your airports?
There’s a dark pattern to it as well. I was under the impression that it was mandatory along with handing over my ID.
I always decline. I am an American citizen so there seems to be no immediate consequences to declining so far. For now.
Unrelated to the question but this makes me think the US is so cooked for not having trainlines. I haven’t flown for years and glad I haven’t
Palantir, which the US gov is now (let’s not kid ourselves, has been for some time illegally) contracting, probably already has your face either from street cams, security cams in various company buildings, or from social media at this point, so letting you ‘opt out’ is probably just theatre to avoid angering people at airports.
The terrorists won.
There is little point in refusing it. The biometrics are already in the database - the scan uses them to let you in without using your passport. Refusing to use the system will not take your data out of the database.
Domestic flights within the united states still require an id. They recently (in may iirc) require you use a “real id”. I guess those are harder to conterfeit, but still they strengthened the traditional id requirement recently, so I expect that to remain the standard, at least for a while
For visa holders and green cards they have been doing that for a decade at least, I wonder if it is optional for them too.
Regarding opting out, we should. It is inconvenient, we get faces, but we should.
- The more scans they get of your face (age, expressions,…) , the more accurate their profile of you will be…
- To make an statement. If we just accept these things, they will keep pushing for more.
If we just accept these things, they will keep pushing for more.
They are going to do whatever they want to do. They’ve long passed the point of caring if they anger people.
What recourse do we have otherwise? Sure it’s unlikely to change anything, but it doesn’t cost anything either.
the WHAT
It’s a replacement for either your ticket or passport being scanned.
Replacement? They normally do both face scan and check some sort of ID.
Not anymore it seems.
I just flew today. They asked for both scan of my ID and pic
Yes I do!
They are working towards requiring it for all travelers.
Why: Think of this as a trial working towards full automation. They aren’t there yet and are not probably legally allowed to do so, but the idea is that you can be fully tracked like the British, Chinese, and other biometric adopted countries.
Prevention: Reliability and legality. As I mentioned I don’t think they can force it in the US for travel yet as it’s not legally allowed, nor is biometrics entirely reliable as is apparent when facial recognition fails.
I just found out that you can opt out recently and decided to try next time I fly.
So just last week had a flight. In line at security I started to wonder what would happen if I tried to decline and was mad at myself for how nervous I got. Absurd.
But I asked the guy “do I have to [get my photo taken]?” and he told me to just pull my mask down and he looked at my id and then let me through to TSA. He was brusk but not too bad. I wonder what airline employees think about facial recognition and surveillance cuz it’s so normal in that space. Anyway.
Overall glad I asked. Will be asking from here on out. I’m sure one day it will be mandatory.
You don’t have to feel bad about being nervous. I did. It’s not unlikely you’ll be the only one in that line who decides to opt out. What happens if something goes wrong? Everyone else will be pissed at you. Turns out it’s not a big deal. You just ask and there’s one less thing they have to do.
Yeah I was thinking that had it been like. Cops or cop-coded individuals I would have been way more scared. But “Do I have to?” is going to be my like. Vomit response to my rights being squeezed on the daily.
And you’re right it wasn’t a big deal at all but it worried me in a new way which is always fun to notice
Weird. I haven’t flown recently. What happens if you get plastic surgery or into an accident or something?
