When President Donald Trump issued his infamous travel ban in January, it consumed headlines for days.
But little attention was paid to other provisions in the executive order--including one that sped up the implementation of a program that could soon result in the facial scanning of every person taking a flight from anywhere in the United States.
SEE ALSO:This bathroom uses facial recognition technology to ration toilet paperThe program is a part of a larger plan called Biometric Exit, which is operated by the folks at Customs and Border Protection, a division of the Department of Homeland Security.
Biometric Exit had been in the works for well over a decade. The program's intent is to make sure U.S. visa holders leaving the country aren't lying about their identity. CBP has decided to do this through photo-matching.
The process works by matching passport and visa photos of U.S. visa holders to photos taken at the airport from which they're departing the country. This helps the U.S. make sure the people getting on the plane are the same people who hold those visas.
The agency plans to expand the program to seven different airports over the summer, and they already started a beta program in 2016 at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta. CBP tested facial recognition on passengers taking select flights to Tokyo, Japan and Mexico City.
In an emailed statement, CBP insisted they're focused on integrating facial recognition into the traveling process such that passengers barely notice the added security measure. Facial recognition will have to be "simple for travelers to comply with" and "travelers shouldn't have to learn something new." The statement also mentioned a focus on privacy several times.
Credit: Education Images/UIG/Getty Images/Universal Images GroupBut there are reasons to be skeptical of the agency's supposed focus on privacy. Facial recognition technology isn't able to recognize white women or black people as well as it's able to identify white men, leading to an increased likelihood that such technology would more often mismatch a white woman or black person's photos. It's unclear what the CBP plans to do to mitigate that bias, if anything.
"There's a risk that, because of who you are -- what gender you are or the color of your skin -- the system might be more likely to make a mistake," said Alvaro Bedoya, the director of Georgetown University's Center on Privacy and Technology.
There's also a significant chance that this facial recognition program will expand to all flyers in the United States, including American citizens.
CBP Deputy Assistant Commissioner John Wagner alluded to this possibility at a conference last week, when he said he wanted to make facial recognition “available for every transaction in the airport where you have to show an ID today.”
"We are working closely with stakeholders to ensure successful implementation of biometric exit and exploring potential for inbound arrivals and other processes," CBP public affairs officer Jennifer Gabris said in an emailed statement.
"I don't think people realize what's coming"
At that point, it's not hard to cross-reference photos of American citizens with other photo databases.
"Why not suddenly run those photos against databases of criminal record photos?" Bedoya asked. "Suddenly flying isn't just about flying and safety in the air, it's about putting people in jail."
Bedoya knows facial recognition isn't something the vast majority of flyers are likely to encounter in the U.S. at the moment, but he said the situation he described isn't as farfetched as some might presume. Databases work by cross-referencing with other databases, and there are plenty of photos in databases of those with criminal records.
There's also, of course, a good chance that this facial recognition technology could misidentify travelers in a way that could -- at the very least -- ruin a trip.
"I don't think people realize what's coming," he said.
TopicsCybersecurityFacial RecognitionPrivacy
(责任编辑：百科)
Tourist survives for month in frozen New Zealand wilderness after partner dies
Oprah made Tim Cook cry at the Apple TV+ event
Slack removes more than two dozen accounts tied to hate groups
Dan Levy announces 'Schitt's Creek' to end with sixth and final seasonSamsung Galaxy Note7 teardown reveals the magic behind the phone's iris scannerTwo astronauts just installed a new parking spot on the International Space Station
UPDATE: Aug. 19, 2016, 2:04 p.m. EDT 。 Astronauts Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams are back in the Inter
...[详细]Twitter is redesigning its camera to feel more like Snapchat
When you think of social media companies and cameras, Twitter is probably not the first app to come
...[详细]Oprah made Tim Cook cry at the Apple TV+ event
She brought the crowd to their feet and a tear to Tim Cook's eye. Continuing, and perhaps the logica
...[详细]Watch Lady Gaga surprise a crowd with a Frank Sinatra performance
Lady Gaga took her Hollywood golden age persona to a new level Thursday when she surprised a crowd a
...[详细]One of the first Apple computers ever made is currently up for auction.A rare "Celebration" Apple-1
...[详细]The viral 'Trashtag Challenge' encourages people to clean up litter
There's a new viral challenge spreading across social media, and it's making the world a cleaner pla
...[详细]The trans meme community on Reddit is about so much more than jokes
There are dozens of subreddits for the trans community on Reddit, each designed to meet a certain ps
...[详细]
Elaine Herzberg was walking her bicycle across a Tempe, Arizona street when a Volvo XC90 hit her, al
...[详细]Pole vaulter claims his penis is not to blame
Following the cringeworthy moment in which pole vaulter Hiroki Ogita's penis grazed the bar and he f
...[详细]The trans meme community on Reddit is about so much more than jokes
There are dozens of subreddits for the trans community on Reddit, each designed to meet a certain ps
...[详细]