The article says that the flight companies claim that it is faster than handling the document to a worker check manually, and maybe it will be become cheaper to have the machine than hiring someone.
Neither of those are good reasons to require people to have their facial data ingested into some database out of their control, almost certainly sold to hostile foreign powers, ad networks, and policing agencies.
We’ve already traded so much privacy away for convenience, security theater, and public safety. And only 1 out of those 3 even has good evidence of having worked. Isn’t it kind of stupid not to try and keep whatever tiny shreds of privacy we have left?
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I waited till 2003. Didn’t like dogs sniffing my shoes, poor babies.
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In Europe the passport control is often automated. You stick your passport in a scanner, and stare at a camera until it decides to let you through. I suppose you could bypass it if you went and spoke to one of the guards, I don’t imagine the alternative would be much fun though.
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For domestic flights. For international flights, you will still need a passport.
Face recognition is for wimps. Next step, blood sampes for DNA:
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I agree with you that those are not good reasons to reduce our privacy.
But I’m not sure about how to counter it.
The technological advances in AI will make our consent useless for the facial scanning.
And while this kind of individual protest won’t make any difference, it may even be counter-productive by just flagging yourself as an uncooperative person that requires more scrutiny.
For me, it looks like the same as the environment and other social problems where the individual effort is promoted to give some peace of mind to the people while it won’t make any difference.
Those problems can only be solved collectively and the individual band-aid just numb the people regarding them.
It is time to recognize that too much of our privacy is already lost and move on to a new solution (hopefully by enacting new protection to privacy) instead of just trying to fight for the small points.
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I’ve been doing so as a matter of principle so far. The guards have been friendly and efficient as always, and I plan to continue doing it for as long as it is feasible.
The main problem is that they stick the passport in the scanner for you…
… at least on immigration.
When leaving Europe, I felt a lot less surveiled at the human passport control.
And faces change over time. What better way to keep your meta-data up to date?
Personal privacy is a delusion in our age of ubiquitous surveillance. Venture outside a well-sealed cave and you WILL be tracked. Your every word and action that CAN be recorded, WILL be. But you knew that. The question becomes: What is your tolerance? When will you succumb to the futility of caring?
Is the face recognize database copyrighted?
Would be interesting if someone was able to own your biometrics and force you to pay to use your own face for this kind of thing.
Being afraid of the government having your photo for facial recognition proposes is like going for a swim in shark-infested waters and being worried about getting a sunburn.
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