There's good and bad news when it comes to airport security. The good news is the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is seeking to speed up the screening process and eliminate those annoying ID and boarding pass checks. The bad news is the solution may come at the expense of your privacy. The TSA is expanding a program that uses facial recognition software to scan travelers in place of checking a picture ID. The pilot program is now in use at 16 airports---including Dallas-Fort Worth, but not in Houston---but could expand nationwide by the end of this year.
The TSA touts this technology as enhancing "security effectiveness, operational efficiency, and the passenger experience." That may all be true, but it also opens the door to potential privacy violations and a dangerous expansion of government surveillance. Some critics are even warning it must be stopped immediately. "They are collecting people's biometric technology, and they're potentially going to put it into a database, and that database could be used to track American citizens," says Christopher Talgo, research fellow at the Heartland Institute.
Facial recognition technology has been around for several years, and is already used for things like concert tickets. But Talgo warns this capability is much more dangerous in the hands of the government, especially since there are no guardrails in place to prevent abuse. "This could be used for people who haven't committed any crime, to track their every move, or be used to track people's carbon footprint, or for things like vaccine passports," he tells KTRH. "The TSA has already admitted that people's face scans can be used by law enforcement---which is a very vague term---for any purpose."
For now, the TSA says the program is strictly voluntary and even if put into widespread use, people will have the ability to opt out. But Talgo and other critics warn there's no guarantee it will stay that way, and no federal laws prevent the TSA from storing this data in the future. "Down the road, this could become the new normal," says Talgo. "And if you're unwilling to abide by the facial recognition technology, well then maybe you're just not going to be able to fly in the United States."