PerspectiveInside America’s First All-Biometric Airline Terminal
People still need more than their faces to enter and exit America on international flights, but Brandi Vincent writes that a growing number of early-stage facial recognition deployments that aim to screen passengers with little human intervention are rolling out at airports across the country.
People still need more than their faces to enter and exit America on international flights, but Brandi Vincent writes in Defense One that a growing number of early-stage facial recognition deployments that aim to screen passengers with little human intervention are rolling out at airports across the country.
At Hartsfield-Jackson Airport in Atlanta, she writers, a multifaceted facial recognition system and process that scans passengers’ biometrics to verify their identities at various points throughout the airport offers a glimpse into document-free but face-scan-enabled travel—as well as the privacy implications that could accompany it.
Late last year the independent executive branch agency shared its observations of a biometric pilot at McCarran International Airport, which were captured as part of the ongoing examination of how biometrics are used to validate passenger identities at each phase of travel. Last week, Klein detailed members’ recent visit to Atlanta’s airport, where they assessed CBP’s biometric exit program and Delta’s fully biometric terminal—the first of any American airline.
Following a 9/11 Commission-led investigation, in 2004 Congress required CBP to build a biometric system to validate that visitors to the U.S. depart in accordance with the terms of their entry. To do so, the agency produced the Traveler Verification Service, or TVS. Klein said the system is already used beyond Atlanta, at some gates at the Dallas/Fort Worth International, Los Angeles International, Dulles International, and John F. Kennedy International Airports, with more to be added to the list this year. Essentially, TVS uses existing photos of foreign visitors to the country and of travelers booked on international flights—such as their passport or visa photos—to enable CBP officials to conduct facial recognition checks as people leave, Klein said. Though the agency owns the backend of TVS, the Homeland Security Department is responsible for storing biometric information, the State Department maintains the passport photos and visa photos, and a commercial contractor provides the technical implementations.
