Are you worried about the government becoming more intrusive and violating your privacy? Then you might not like a recent Transportation Security Administration move.
According to a Monday report from Fox News, the TSA has been testing out some new tech. It’s called “Touchless Identity Solution” and has already been installed at 25 airports throughout the United States.
So what is it, and what does it do?
Well, it’s basically facial recognition software. As Fox tells it, it takes “pictures of passengers” and then compares them to the images provided on the passenger’s identification.
The report explains that it basically adds a step to the verification process completed by the airport. Usually, when going through security at domestic airports, you hand over your driver’s license or passport. These are then scanned to ensure they are not fake credentials.
“With the new process, your ID would still be placed into the card reader, and then the TSA agent would take a picture of your face in real time. That picture will be processed to see if it matches the picture on your driver’s license. The agent will then approve the screening once the picture is verified.”
As TSA identity management capabilities manager Jason Liam says, the idea is to ensure that you are actually “who you say you are.”
So far, the following airports have already begun using this software:
• Atlanta Hartsfield
• Boston Logan
• BWI
• Cincinnati
• Dallas-Fort Worth
• Daniel K. Inouye in Hawaii
• Denver
• Detroit Metro Wayne County
• Eastern Iowa
• Gulfport-Biloxi in Mississippi
• Harry Reid in Nevada
• Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers in Mississippi
• Los Angeles
• Louis Armstrong in New Orleans
• Luis Muñoz Marín in Puerto Rico
• Miami
• Nashville in Tennessee
• Orlando in Florida
• Phoenix Sky Harbor
• Richmond in Virginia
• Ronald Reagan in Washington
• Salt Lake City
• San Francisco
• San Jose Mineta in California
• Will Rogers in Oklahoma
The plan is that if all goes well in these airports, the program will soon be expanded nationally.
Of course, a great number have concerns about the program.
The first is at the airports already using this, there isn’t any signage telling passengers it’s an option, which is it at this point. And, of course, there are major concerns about this “data” being hacked and used for purposes other than what it was intended for.
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