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Senators Say TSA’s Facial Recognition Program Is Out of Control | You can opt out of facial recognition at airports, for now, but the TSA wants to make the invasive technology a requirement (gizmodo.com)

submitted 4 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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A bipartisan group of 12 senators has urged the Transportation Security Administration’s inspector general to investigate the agency’s use of facial recognition, saying it poses a significant threat to privacy and civil liberties.

“This technology will soon be in use at hundreds of major and mid-size airports without an independent evaluation of the technology’s precision or an audit of whether there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect passenger privacy,” the senators wrote.

“While the TSA claims facial recognition is optional, it is confusing and intimidating to opt out of TSA’s facial recognition scans, and our offices have received numerous anecdotal reports of Transportation Security Officers (TSOs) becoming belligerent when a traveler askes to opt out, or simply being unaware of that right,” the senators wrote. They added that in some airports the signage instructing flyers to step in front of a camera is prominently displayed while signs advising passengers of their right to opt out of face scan is “strategically placed in inconspicuous locations.”

To opt out of a face scan at an airport, a traveler need only say that they decline facial recognition. They can then proceed normally through security by presenting an identification document, such as a driver’s license or passport.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

the TSA has said the systems have a three percent false negative rate—how often they fail to properly match a person to their image in the database—which would equate to 68,000 failures daily if the technology was spread across all airports.

Holy crap, so 1 out of every 30 times I fly, I get to fly under someone else's identity that looks like me?

Fuck that's broke

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

3% false negatives, not false positives.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

Claimed 3% false negatives according to the TSA, not actual false negatives, which are probably far higher. And what's the false positive rate? How many people are going to get hauled off planes and harassed for no reason?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 weeks ago

I'm not making an argument for the technology or the veracity of the claims, I was literally just pointing out the misunderstanding.