Americans can opt out of airport facial recognition

> “Once the biometric exit program is a nationally-scaled, established program, foreign nationals will be required to biometrically confirm their exit from the United States at the final [boarding] point,” said CBP spokesperson Jennifer Gabris in an earlier email to TechCrunch. “This has been and is a Congressional mandate,” she said.

> Facial recognition data collected by the airlines on U.S. citizens is stored by Customs and Border Protection for between 12 hours and two weeks, and 75 years for non-citizens. That data is stored in several government databases, which border officials can pull up when you’re arriving or leaving the U.S.

Data will be stored for 75 years for foreigners (excl. some Canadians, and other exceptions). At which point the data is so obsolete I question what use case they might have for it.

I attempted to opt out of airport facial recognition returning from Colombia in March 2019, but was denied at several levels and ultimately forced to take a picture or otherwise remain with the police until I surrendered my photo. It was such bullshit, but they would not let me back into the US without giving them my photo.

This was Spirit airlines in Washington DC.

As if prism and the whole 14eyes thing wasn't enough, now they want to keep tabs on where we're going? And they expect us to "trust them because they have only us citizens' best interests in mind"? I'll pass, thanks. We're headed towards a dystopian future