DHS: Travelers traveling by plane to international flights from US airports will soon be screened before boarding their plane
The security measure is part of a new US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) program launched in the summer of 2016, when DHS worked with Delta and JetBlue on the introduction of face recognition systems on international flights.
Face scanning will help both airlines and CBP agents (US Customs and Border Protection)
Travelers are supposed to sit in front of a camera που θα σαρώνει το πρόσωπό τους και θα αποθηκεύει την picture τους πριν επιβιβαστούν στο αεροπλάνο τους. Το σύστημα θα συγκρίνει τη σάρωση προσώπου με photos passport or other passenger images to see if they match the identity of the person recorded on each flight manifest.
Delta and JetBlue report that this program will accelerate boarding checks. Copies of the photographs will also be sent to the United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) system that detects people with false passports or passports that have expired.
Tests for this new face scanning system have been made by 2016 at Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York and Washington airports on selected international flights.
The system is supposed to not sweep American citizens. But it does.
DHS, through CBP, has already collected fingerprints and photos from foreigners entering the US from 2004.
Congress and the Obama administration have approved the extension of this biometric data collection program to include travelers entering and leaving the US, air, sea and land.
Congress, and later President Trump via a executive order, stated that this program should not include US citizens. However, the tests carried out by DHS since June of 2016 have also swept American travelers.
According to a DHS report on the progress of the program, the ministry is reportedly aware that they are sweeping American citizens' faces, as opposed to the executive order of Congress and President Trump.
"If a U.S. citizen requests not to participate in TVS [Traveler Service], his or her identity can be verified by an available CBP Officer through manual processing," the agency said in a report in May, implicitly acknowledging that individuals American citizens are being scanned en masse.
The criticism that the program received from US citizens and privacy groups did not seem to have had an impact on DHS's program, which gave an inhuman answer stating that those who do not want to sweep their faces should not travel.
"The only way for a person to ensure that he or she does not collect biometric information when traveling internationally is to avoid traveling," DHS said.
The system will become permanent by 2018
The facial scanning system is scheduled to officially launch in 2018 with more airline partners. The system will be extended to both ports and land points US border control. DHS said that photos of scanned faces are automatically deleted from their system after 14 days.
Of course we should mention that government agencies in the past have used the database of US citizens without permission. The FBI he used one of these databases to identify criminals.
Face scans are not considered to be the most accurate biometric identification methods, and many claim that misidentifications may destroy many people's travel plans, or that some would automatically enter the US entry ban list.
