Around 8:00 a.m. on a Wednesday morning, Isabel H. boarded a flight from Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
She was a Mexican national with a Mexican passport and was scheduled to fly from Atlanta to Mexico City.
But, as the passengers boarded the plane, they passed a camera that was set up on the jetway, and each passenger had their picture taken.
The pictures were matched with facial recognition technology to photos previously taken of the passengers.
Then, the images are compared to previous ones from passports, visas, or other government documents.
As people boarded the plane, Isabel was flagged by the system and customs officials were alerted to check her.
The system alerted customs because the preflight information about Isabel didn’t have any photos.
When customs looked at her passport, there was no visa attached to it.
And she didn’t have a green card to prove she was a lawful permanent resident.
When questioned by customs, Isabel admitted that she entered the U.S. illegally about four years previous.
And she hadn’t been caught committing any crimes in the U.S. while she was here.
“We didn’t have her biometrics because we had never encountered her before.”
Customs officials used a mobile device to collect Isabel’s fingerprints.
“This was the first time that we had captured this individual’s biometrics, her unique physical traits,” said a CBP enforcement officer at the Atlanta Airport.
A customs official said they encounter multiple people a day, just like Isabel.
She was allowed to leave the country, but there is now a record that she previously entered the country illegally.
The program at Atlanta’s airport was a test.
Now, Customs and Border Protection plans to log every person leaving the country by plane or vehicle by taking photos at border crossings.
They will take photos of every passenger and match the faces to passports, visas, and other travel documents.
Here is what this means for you:
Opt out:
Everywhere these days, faces are captured by cameras.
There is a ton of data collected about Americans that we don’t know about and can’t prevent.
But U.S. citizens can opt out of facial recognition screening when exiting the U.S.
You have to request to be processed using alternative verification methods.
This includes presenting your physical documents to a CBP officer.
This means you need to have physical documents instead of digital documents to verify your identity.
In some cases, it takes a little more time, but it at least removes one aspect of being captured by facial recognition.
Immigration laws:
If you are a U.S. citizen and use the facial recognition system, it will primarily identify who you are, and won’t affect your re-entry into the U.S.
But it does contribute to your government travel record.
Meaning, it tells the U.S. government where you have gone.
While not a huge deal, it doesn’t protect your privacy.
So, if you are not a U.S. citizen and you overstayed your visa or violated any laws, it could impact your return to the U.S.
But if you have a visa, it will prove that you left the country before the visa expired.
If you want to avoid the U.S. government easily tracing your every movement, it’s best to avoid facial recognition when possible.
Privacy issues:
The U.S. government doesn’t have a great record when it comes to protecting your privacy.
You may remember the 2015 OPM data leak.
More than 22 million Americans had their personal data stolen by China.
That’s because the U.S. government failed to protect the data.
And when the Customs and Border Patrol collect facial recognition data, they have to store it somehow.
This makes it a target for hackers and thieves – both lone wolves, and nation states.
Clearly, China would love to get pictures of every person entering and leaving the U.S.
Who knows what they could do with that data? Identity or financial theft, tracking, blackmail, AI deep fakes, the sky’s the limit.
So, while it’s true that our faces are captured at many of the places we go…
If you give the government one less way to capture your image, it’s one less way your data could be compromised.
