Travel dilemmas: Airport face scanning runs into privacy fears

cheryl

cheryl

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Travel dilemmas: Airport face scanning runs into privacy fears - Heraldnet

Homeland Security officials say within four years, they intend to scan faces of 97% of trevelers.

Who’s in charge? The Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection unit is leading the charge, promoting the technology on its website as “the ideal technology path to a more seamless travel experience.” President Donald Trump added urgency with a 2017 order that called for security officials to make biometrics a priority.

Meanwhile, the Transportation Security Administration, another Homeland Security agency, has been collaborating with CBP on biometrics and has set a series of goals. One is face-scanning travelers in TSA Precheck lines (and integrating that data with fingerprints). Another is face scanning more domestic travelers (on a voluntary basis) and perhaps integrating that data with driver’s license data by way of Homeland Security’s Real ID program.

How fast is this moving? In an April report, Homeland Security officials said that within four years, they intend to scan the faces of 97% of passengers, including U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, on outbound international flights.
 
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