Face recognition system launched on US border

US border guards launch an experiment on the use of biometric technologies at the border. Some employees will participate in the verification of the face recognition system.

This system will be used to compare your computer with a photo in your passport. The border guards will check the system on their citizens returning from other countries. Randomly selected people they photograph, after which the program compares this photo with what is stored in the passport chip.
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Organizations that advocate for privacy and privacy protection are already criticizing this program. A spokesman for the Center for Democracy and Technology says: “This program works with people who are not suspected of anything and are engaged in ordinary business. And suddenly they are required to provide their biometric data, according to which they can be identified in the future, and which will be stored in the system. This is a dangerous path leading to the potential for a range of abuses. ”

The border guards assure that the photos will not be tied to the identity of people, and will be stored in the database only with an indication of the time when they were taken. And that at the end of the experiment after a year and a half the photos will be deleted. But critics say that these assurances cannot be trusted. For example, in 2010, it suddenly turned out that scanners, which allow visitors to “look under the clothes” of airport visitors, contrary to assurances, can store and even send saved images.

The representative of the human rights organization EFF is worried about what will happen at the end of the experiment. “Today they are testing it at the border, tomorrow this system will recognize faces in all public places. Today, photographs are stored separately from other agencies, tomorrow they will be shared by all and sundry. ”

A face recognition specialist at Carnegie Melon University is generally wondering why the border guards needed such a program. Why try to replace people who already compare your face with a photo in your passport? Do people poorly cope with this? - he asks.