TSA says this is an optional program for travelers on domestic flights, while some foreign nationals may have to participate to be allowed on international flights.
Theoretically, there should be visible signage that notifies travelers they can proceed through airport security without doing the facial scan. In reality, not everyone will see the sign ― and it might not be in a language that a traveler understands.
I am one of the travelers who’s been agreeing to get my face scanned in airport security lines for years. But amid alarming reports of travelers experiencing bad treatment from border control officials, I’m reconsidering whether I should be submitting a face scan so easily to the U.S. government.
I have opted out by not flying into the US.
Well, clearly you’re a terrorist
Surveillance is a slippery slope
I see a lot of people who see cameras and other surveillance tools as a source of comfort. What they don’t realize is how quickly those things can be used against them.
I really think if someone made a decentralised potentially federated network that pulls the data from every publicly available security camera on the internet and builds a database of facial recognition that would be sufficiently terrifying to get some people to stand against it.
I loathe going to a house when I can see they’ve got a Ring or another door camera. And the shitty part is, I can’t ask the owner to turn it off while I pick up my <insert local equivalent of Craig’s List or whatever here> item because they’ll jump to assuming that I’m dodgyor going to do something bad to them rather than the door camera service they’re using being dodgy as hell and I just don’t want to be data mined by Jeff Bezos. (Or that maybe I just don’t consent to some random stranger recording me)
Things are getting so bad I fear for being labeled a troublemaker and sent to the gulag over declining.
Sure would be a sad thing if the TSA was completely dismantled by DOGE bullshit. Where else can I get a complementary rectal exam with a bunch of strangers without etiquette dictating that I at least offer to return the favor?
If DOGE did that something else that is probably even worse would fill the void.
Something about broken clocks being right two (or sometimes 3) times daily. They’re bound to do something useful eventually, if only by mistake.
Yeah, ICE.
I approach from the side, put my hand over the camera, and say “no thanks”.
The more obvious it is what I’m doing to the folks in line behind me, the more likely it is that someone else may also opt out.
You want my face? You already get it through fuck knows how many other surveillance systems. Fuck off asking me for one right in front of me when I’m already handing over my damn passport.
Can one do this with global entry as well?
