The last few times I’ve flown, I’ve been prompted to stand in front of a camera and have my photo taken while at the TSA checkpoint. There’s a seemingly permanent machine there to do it, and it’s now the expected protocol. I don’t love it—what if I am fleeing a murderous Silicon Valley creep who knows how to hack TSA data and find out where I’m flying? What if I’m in the Witness Protection Program and trying to be as careful as possible about my image being captured? Or worse...what if it’s a bad hair day?
Whelp, facial recognition technology is here to stay at at least 84 U.S. airports through the Credential Authorization Technology, as reported by USA Today. And soon, you’ll find it at more than 400 “federalized” airports, a term which simply means an airport where TSA helms the security checkpoints.
While your photo is being taken, a TSA officer also scans your identification card or passport. So long as there’s a match between your image on the documentation and the face you present the camera, all is well. According to TSA’s website, “Photos are not stored or saved after a positive ID match has been made, except in a limited testing environment for evaluation of the effectiveness of the technology.”
If you’re a little wiggy over this idea and don’t want to participate, you can decline the camera, “without recourse,” TSA says, to instead use an alternative method to verify your identity. This is not supposed to take any longer than just being photographed, and you won’t lose your place in line for the rest of the screening where you run your carry-on baggage through the scanners.
Passengers under the age of 18 are not photographed.
If you’re concerned that the images could be saved and used for surveillance, TSA’s statement refutes that worry. “[Photos] will not be used for surveillance or any law enforcement purpose,” says TSA, and will only be used to verify passengers’ identities. Moreover, the process will hopefully catch people traveling with false documents: “fraudulent IDs and imposters represent an emerging threat to security,” says TSA.