Ask HN: Opinions on facial recognition at air ports?

Both the EU and the US have introduced face scanning at airports to "increase security". EU rules are currently stricter and US rules allow some opt-outs for people that are uncomfortable with it. But it's only a matter of time before it becomes de facto mandatory for everyone. They claim that data is not retained or shared with other parties. Yeah, right, I totally believe that... Can something be done about this? I'm convinced that very few customers think face scanning is an improvement.

They already have the data from your id. So I’m not too concerned about its use where your id is required, what I’m terrified about is its expansion and use elsewhere.

3 hours agoby balderdash

What is my concern? That my passport, state ID/driver's license, or portrait photos used for identification will leak? The data is already out there and of low value imho. I voluntarily added my finger printers for Global Entry to speed transiting the US border as a US citizen. If one has nation state adversaries, this is not the OSI layer where you would or could defend against them. It's a governance and political issue, not a tech issue.

13 hours agoby toomuchtodo

What’s the big deal? You had to give them your Federal ID anyway. The government already knows where you are going what tine you checked in and they have multiple copies of your ID on the state and federal level if you have a passport.

12 hours agoby raw_anon_1111

I'm concerned about false positive matches against lists of bad people. There have to be robust procedures to make sure that we don't exclusively trust AI.

10 hours agoby mikewarot

What is the big deal exactly? How is that any different from regular surveillance cameras, facial recognition on passport machines or by officers? Why aren’t you worried that an officer will steal your “data”? Or an airline will leak it.

13 hours agoby aristofun

It's one of the many things about airports and flying that makes me avoid them to the greatest degree possible.

12 hours agoby JohnFen

>Both the EU and the US have introduced face scanning at airports to "increase security".

Totally fine with me. Imagine all the cameras you walked by even getting to the new cameras you seemingly have problems with? If you're at an airport, people have their phones out recording all the time. It's public. I want the CBSA to be recording, databasing, post-analyzing including the ability to feed a photo into their database and know who that is. That's the border.

The big question, I'm not sure. Should the data be freedom of information act accessible? I think we side on privacy here; ban the government from sharing the ID information.

>EU rules are currently stricter and US rules allow some opt-outs for people that are uncomfortable with it.

Here in Canada, no significant rules. You can ride on an international flight fully covered except eyes to see where you're going. We recently increased privacy having everyone ride with a mask.

You can opt out of the radiation/xray scans for health and religious reasons.

10 hours agoby incomingpain