Comment by lgbr | Hacker News Reader

Comment by lgbr | Hacker News Reader

I get that this is about preventing ticket reselling, but I have a different question: Can someone explain the controversy around face scans for air travel? Governments have clearly laid out that flying affords zero expectation of privacy, and the airlines won't let you buy a plane ticket without knowing your name (as opposed to bus or subway tickets). If the airline knows your name, and their attendants see and verify your face when boarding anyway, then are we losing anything through the use of face scans?

Domestic flights in the US make extensive use of facial scanning, and both US and EU border agencies digitally scan your face to identify you (Global Entry in the US even means you theoretically don't need your passport to enter the country).

So why should we pretend like face scanning isn't happening? I can understand the idea that at some point, I won't need a boarding pass nor identification to get onto a plane, and at this point, it appears to not cost me any privacy that I've already lost over the last 25 years.

If the argument is "they're already doing this, so what's the issue?" then I have to ask: if they're already doing this, then what's the value-add? Face scanning seems like quite a large complex system to deploy compared to the tried-and-true method of paper ticketing and identification. The push for this technology is suspicious to me as a Westerner because the benefits to me are unclear, while the risks (e.g., China-like ubiquitous surveillance and repression, and corporate access controls like those attorneys who were barred from a Madison Square Garden show) are a little more established.

> If the airline knows your name, and their attendants see and verify your face when boarding anyway, then are we losing anything through the use of face scans?

I've recently flown with FinnAir and they never asked for my ID. All times I went with them. I just scan my boarding pass and done. The only day they asked me for my name is when I was the last person to board the plane because I was late for my flight.

> If the airline knows your name, and their attendants see and verify your face when boarding anyway, then are we losing anything through the use of face scans?

Your face scan is now online waiting for the next data breach.

I have seen neobanks requiring such 3D face scans but not Ryanair yet.

> Your face scan is now online waiting for the next data breach

Completely understood, but the point is that it's at CBP or UK Border Force or Bundespolizei, and it's in the security camera system at the airport, too.

If you've been a visitor to Australia recently, you'll be all too familiar with the process of using your phone to scan your face plus passport data.

When you enter the airport, you walk past signs notifying you of extensive surveillance camera use.

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