The Transportation Security Administration began adding facial recognition technology in airports nationwide in 2022.
As this technology and other new biometric capabilities are causing concerns about privacy and personal freedom, the TSA is trying to sell this trend by saying it would ‘lower the stress of traveling.’
Transportation Security Administration chief David Pekoske said the agency wants to use technology to reduce the number of screening officers in checkpoints and speed up travel processes as passenger volumes increase.At Tuesday’s panel at South by Southwest, which focused on accelerating aviation security, he boasted about the agency’s computed tomography technology and biometrics. Despite struggling with staffing a year ago, Pekoske said that nearly 2.4 million people are screened on a given day by TSA.Pekoske said that TSA’s purpose is to make sure it maintains its security and transportation system at the same time, while staying several steps ahead of threats.“It’s critically important that this system has as little friction as it possibly can, while we provide for safety and security,” Pekoske said.
Salt Lake City’s airport recently installed a new Credential Authentication Technology (CAT).
Much like the original CAT units, they are designed to scan a traveler’s photo ID and confirm their identity and flight details. What makes CAT-2 different is its ability to take a real-time photo of travelers and compare their facial features to ensure they match. Passengers will be able to use either their photo ID or the GET Mobile ID app that was announced to be accepted at the TSA PreCheck in the Salt Lake City International Airport last week.Two new movies and a tv show will be filmed in Utah this year“It’s really that extra layer of security to ensure that the ID the traveler is using is in fact authentic. And that’s another benefit of credential authentication technology. That was a feature with the first feature of CAT and continues to be a feature in the second generation of CAT,” said TSA spokesperson Lorie Dankers.
This direction is causing a great deal of concern about liberty-minded Americans. Legal Insurrection readers may recall our report on Kelly Conlon, who went to New York City with her daughter on a Girl Scout trip. But she couldn’t attend a Rockettes show at Radio City Music Hall because of facial recognition.
Conlon is an associate with the New Jersey based law firm, Davis, Saperstein and Solomon, which for years has been involved in personal injury litigation against a restaurant venue now under the umbrella of MSG Entertainment.“I don’t practice in New York. I’m not an attorney that works on any cases against MSG,” said Conlon.But MSG said she was banned nonetheless — along with fellow attorneys in that firm and others.“MSG instituted a straightforward policy that precludes attorneys pursuing active litigation against the Company from attending events at our venues until that litigation has been resolved. While we understand this policy is disappointing to some, we cannot ignore the fact that litigation creates an inherently adverse environment. All impacted attorneys were notified of the policy, including Davis, Saperstein and Salomon, which was notified twice,” a spokesperson for MSG Entertainment said in a statement.
Despite these concerns, Pekoske indicates that biometrics will eventually not be optional.
“We’re upgrading our camera systems all the time, upgrading our lighting systems,” Pekoske said. “(We’re) upgrading our algorithms, so that we are using the very most advanced algorithms and technology we possibly can.”He said passengers can also choose to opt out of certain screening processes if they are uncomfortable, for now. Eventually, biometrics won’t be optional, he said.
It appears that we may be following the same tech trend as Communist China, per an investigation by the New York Times this past summer that revealed how China conducts biometric mass surveillance on a scale even broader than previously understood.
Personal data, including DNA, facial scans and voice biometrics are being collected in a push to “maximize what the state can find out about a person’s identity, activities and social connections, which could ultimately help the government maintain its authoritarian rule,” according to the Times’ analysis.Analysts examined more than a hundred thousand government bidding documents, and found that Chinese authorities had requested access to cameras in public and private spaces, including lobbies of the Days Inn and Marriott brand hotels. A police estimate in the bidding documents put the number of facial images stored at any given time at 2.5 billion.Documents from the city of Zhongshan, in the southwest, show the police force requesting technology that would allow facial recognition cameras to also record a voice print within a 300-foot radius. There are records of large purchases of DNA and iris-scanning technology, which has already been used to create an iris biometrics database in the Xinjiang region, where large-scale human rights violations against the Uyghur ethnic minority have attracted international condemnation.
We were promised more safety when the TSA was first created. Given how the current administration and its leading officials behave, Americans have every reason not to buy anything the government promotes.
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