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In December, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA), an agency within Biden’s Department of Homeland Security, acknowledged that it had significantly expanded facial recognition technology at airport security checkpoints across the United States.
Under the expanded program, 16 of the largest U.S. airports, including Atlanta, Boston, Denver and Los Angeles, now use facial scanning as a way to verify a traveler’s identity. TSA’s first test facial recognition program began in 2017 under the Trump administration.
The system asks passengers to insert their photo ID into a security kiosk and look at the cameras. After a few seconds, the machine uses artificial intelligence to compare your face scan with your photo ID. Once the system shows her two matches, the passenger can proceed to their gate. Determines whether her human TSA agent denies access to the traveler if a potential discrepancy is identified. Ultimately, humans are completely excluded from the verification process.
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If new program is deemed successful, TSA plans to expand facial recognition to airports nationwide in one of the largest efforts in U.S. history to collect advanced biometric data on law-abiding citizens am.
Boston is one of the cities where the new facial scanner will be deployed. FILE: Travelers tug luggage while walking on a footbridge between terminals at Boston’s Logan International Airport on Wednesday, November 24, 2021, the day before Thanksgiving. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
The Biden administration has said biometric technology like facial recognition can “improve security effectiveness, operational efficiency, and passenger experience,” and in some ways it most certainly can. is.
TSA administrator David Pekoske says his agency has found facial recognition algorithms to be more accurate than human TSA agents, and the TSA will eventually combine facial recognition with government databases. , claims it can completely eliminate the need to carry an ID at the airport. But as useful and effective as the program may be, the real long-term threats to individual liberty far outweigh its potential benefits.
The TSA says it doesn’t retain data related to most traveler facial scans, but some it does to test the effectiveness of its systems and retains it for law enforcement. Additionally, TSA is committed to allowing travelers to opt out of facial scanning entirely under the program’s current iteration. There is no federal law prohibiting the TSA from storing biometric data in the future.
Allowing the TSA to collect and possibly store facial scans would make it much easier for the government to track every move of its citizens in the years to come, posing a grave abuse of power and privacy risk. may open the door. This may sound like a wild conspiracy theory or conspiracy from science fiction movies, but authoritarian regimes around the world are already using facial recognition to limit their freedom.
For example, the Chinese government routinely uses a vast surveillance state combined with facial recognition to track and control its vast population as part of its social credit system. In Hong Kong in 2019, facial recognition was one of the most important tools used by the Chinese Communist Party to curb protesters trying to preserve individual liberties.
Similarly, in Russia, Vladimir Putin’s ruthless government has repeatedly used facial recognition to monitor protesters and political opponents. is helping arrest critics.
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Of course, Biden isn’t as authoritarian as the Chinese Communist Party or Vladimir Putin, but there’s no guarantee that Biden or federal rogues won’t abuse facial recognition technology given the opportunity. And who knows what future administrations will do when given such powerful tools?
The US government has been repeatedly accused of unfairly spying on Americans in recent years. For example, in 2022, Oregon Democratic Senator Ron Wyden claimed that the Phoenix office of the Homeland Security Investigation Service was illegally issuing tariff summits to gain access to citizens’ financial data. Over 6 million records are said to have been provided to law enforcement under potentially illegal subpoenas.
President Joe Biden’s new facial recognition plan will deploy scanners at airports in 16 major cities.
(Reuters/Jonathan Ernst)
The Homeland Security Agency, like the TSA, is under the Department of Homeland Security.
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While privacy may sometimes need to be restricted for added security, there’s absolutely no evidence to suggest that Biden’s current expansion of facial recognition is one of those moments. One of the safest modes of transportation in the United States. Although facial recognition has been largely unused for the last 20 years, he hasn’t seen a single major terrorist attack involving aircraft since September 11, 2001. So why is it so important for governments to use facial recognition to improve safety?
In order to maintain a free society of its citizens, it is imperative that it controls the government more than it controls its citizens. For decades, the balance of power has tilted in the government’s favor, and this move by the Biden administration will undoubtedly continue that disturbing trend.
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