TSA wants to expand facial recognition to hundreds of airports within a decade | Hacker News Reader

TSA wants to expand facial recognition to hundreds of airports within a decade

theregister.com

18 pointsthunderbong14 comments

I've opted out the last three times while traveling between Europe and the United States, but each time the worker has given me grief about it. One badgered me repeatedly about why I wanted to opt out, and then interrupted my answer to lecture me about much more tracking I am subject to as a smartphone user.

The fourth time I just didn't have the energy – not the desire to put my wife through all that again – to opt out. I don't like it, but they wore my willpower down. With human nature to avoid conflict, friction and sticking out from the crowd, increased surveillance measures will win nine out of ten times.

What surprised me was how enthusiastic/sold on facial recognition the TSA employees were, and how many pro-facial recognition posters were decorating the walls leading up to security.

I assume it's standard practice to punish people for opting out.

I feel like I'm not smart enough to figure this out so I'll just ask. You are very against a scan of your face by the people who you just handed a photo id to because...

Mostly because society (at least in the US) does not yet have the protections in place to stop corporations and government agency from abusing automated surveillance. Who has permission to perform mass facial recognition? What are the limits on privacy invasion by third parties or by the government? So far, in the US, the only significant limitations are social pressure against these practices.

That brings me to my second reason for wanting to opt out – even if this facial recognition policy is perfectly implemented, with wonderful privacy guards, it is still normalizing this kind of mass surveillance and data gathering in the mind of the public.

Twenty years ago, I believe most people would have been shocked and uncomfortable with the amount of tracking that occurs today. You also seem quite comfortable with it, and I think you're in the majority. My opting out is a tiny, insignificant vote that I don't think this should be normalized.

I am curious about an inverse facet of facial recognition. i.e. watching the watchers. If I owned a grocery store would it be illegal for me to use facial recognition to identify undercover cops trying to bring in under-age people to buy cigarettes to bust the sales clerks for failing to properly check ID? If so what law would I be violating? Perhaps the use of a leaked government ID database?

Are there any open source projects that could be utilized for this purpose assuming I am using a legitimately acquired database? Could I use machine learning for this? e.g. this adult has driven into a police parking lot {x} days per year and now is in my store with a teen near them This would not be to evade the law but rather to heighten awareness of clerks so they do not end up with a life-long felony record for making one mistake when things get busy.

> If I owned a grocery store would it be illegal for me to use facial recognition to identify undercover cops trying to bring in under-age people to buy cigarettes to bust the sales clerks for failing to properly check ID?

How is facial recognition easier than just checking ID?

We could try that, but the undercover officers are not likely to show their badge until after the clerk makes a mistake and by then it's too late.

Usually, when you inconveniece people with power, they tend to use that power against you.

If you did this without raising attention, you could get away with it I would imagine, but if it starts to become "a thing" and cops/politicians don't like it, I'm pretty sure they would drop the hammer on you pretty quickly.

In the past

Facial recognition technology: How to opt out at the airport - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28490373 - Jan 2021 (120 comments)

What company is the leader in facial recognition technology at airports? Asking for a stock-investing friend.

TSA: Nude body scans are good, but we want to make sure we've got a really good scan of your face as well!

who watches the watchmen?

Simply, those who control the watchmens paychecks. And it ain’t you and I.

Dehumanizing

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