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JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

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Re: JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

#31

Post by ehnto »

cocochanel wrote: post #7
ahelwer wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We should be very concerned, because this is obviously testing the waters before rolling out ubiquitous facial recognition. I honestly and earnestly believe that use of facial recognition technology should be banned in all its forms. The applications are limited and the downsides are massive.

Could you please elaborate on the downsides? Gov't has your data since you were born, complete with your photos, IDs, you name it. What makes you think it's any different now?

The difference is that ubiquitous facial recognition allows for near seamless tracking of individuals and explicitly without a warrant or their consent. It's an important milestone because it moves us from a "reasonable book keeping" level of tracking to full blown seamless tracking and again importantly, without our consent.

To imagine it a bit more viscerally, imagine instead that the system had no cameras and instead required you to submit your daily movement report at the end of each day. An agent walks from door to door and you hand him your written report of exactly what you did today and that gets entered into the Government Saftey and Oversight Commission Database. What are they going to use all that data for? There are only a handful of good reasons, but a disproportionate list of bad reasons that explicitly limit freedom.

Second to that. Would you be as comfortable going to a strip club or a fringe political gathering or a conference for a controversial topic if you knew you had to put it in your report? It has a chilling effect on freedom of movement and pushes fringe activities that are perfectly safe and legal into the darkness.

Re: JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

#32

Post by ehnto »

mattlondon wrote: post #25

So how does this work for international travelers? Presumably the US government does not have the entire world's passport photos? Or do they...? Pretty worrying if so ... time for some GDPR requests maybe ... I think at Gatwick in the UK they have a similar system where they take a photo of you as you enter security and it is then checked again at the gate. It does not work well if you are wearing glasses. I wonder i…

There have been movements in fashion already that are trying to combat facial recognition with clothing, makeup and accessories. I always imagined that was why cyberpunk characters tended to dress their faces so bizarrely. Kind of like kids hiding beneath their hoodies.

Re: JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

#33

Post by skilled »

I am guessing that the bigger concern here is that this is an 'enabler' tactic to expand facial recognition in other areas of our lives. And if this is the case, then there definitely needs to be some kind of ratification.

Maybe this is unrelated, but it's starting to feel like every bad accident in this world is affecting us in this very strange way. For example, I was very surprised to find that Sri Lanka cut everyone off from social media "just like that". To think there are people with this kind of power seems a little frightening to say the least.

But, what's even scarier is that these bombings and 'tragic' events tend to steer us in a very controlling direction. All of a sudden the government has an incentive to enforce more control over its citizens and society as a whole.

Re: JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

#34

Post by hyeonwho4 »

martin_ wrote: post #18
tommoor wrote: post #13

Last time I came into SFO through Global Entry there was no passport scan needed, just a quick look in the camera and it printed my receipt to enter the country. I've often thought that border control has the best time lapse of me aging

Interesting, how do you activate that flow? I landed at SFO last night and it prompted for me to insert my passport before it'd scan my face / take finger prints

Global Entry is a TSA program you can apply for. The TSA charges a fee of 100 USD and runs an in person interview.

Edit: those under investigation, warrants, or charged with crimes are not elligible. Neither are those with passports from outside major US allies (India Colombia UK Germany Panama Singapore Korea Switzerland Taiwan Mexico Canada)

Re: JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

#36

Post by thoughtfunction »

mch82 wrote: post #16

How much longer will we allow our freedoms to be eroded? People were flying without any photo ID until just a few years ago (except internationally). We’ve given up so much freedom & so much of what made air travel fun in exchange for so little. We need to stop letting people scare us into giving away our freedoms.

For many years, I remember needed a piece of photo id with my ticket to get through TSA security checkpoints. What were you able to do instead? Just give a ticket?

Re: JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

#37

Post by Chico11Kidlet »

If it keeps me safe, if it keeps the airplane from being flown into buildings, if it helps assure my safe passage to and from my destination and home to my family, then scan my face, and yours, as many times as needed. I have nothing to hide.

As far as our liberty...this isn't the 1700s, Ben Franklin might have a different opinion today. I'd rather have the liberty of flying safely than it taken away by some terrorist hijackers using my life to prove a misguided point.

Re: JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

#38

Post by alkonaut »

If a private company says they'll take a picture of me at checkin and then verify that at boarding vs the same picture - then destroy the picture, I'm fine with that. It's a temporary storage of biometric data. I'm especially fine with it if I can opt to go for a paper passport instead.

BUT

If a private company uses some database, especially a centralized/government database, to do the same task - then it's absolutely dystopian.

Re: JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

#39

Post by chipsa »

numakerg wrote: post #27
mch82 wrote: post #16

How much longer will we allow our freedoms to be eroded? People were flying without any photo ID until just a few years ago (except internationally). We’ve given up so much freedom & so much of what made air travel fun in exchange for so little. We need to stop letting people scare us into giving away our freedoms.

>We need to stop letting people scare us into giving away our freedoms. It doesn't seem all that scary if everyone's doing it. Just look at the use of facial recognition in the movie Coco. They could have made up any magic to stop Hector from leaving, but Disney decided to teach kids that having your faced scanned when going through security is totally normal. https://youtu.be/t9Dn4YrJGak?t=92

And magic did stop Hector from leaving. He couldn't actually step on the flower petal bridge. So what was the point of the checkpoint?

Re: JetBlue has started using facial recognition instead of boarding passes

#40

Post by djcapelis »

thoughtfunction wrote: post #36
mch82 wrote: post #16

How much longer will we allow our freedoms to be eroded? People were flying without any photo ID until just a few years ago (except internationally). We’ve given up so much freedom & so much of what made air travel fun in exchange for so little. We need to stop letting people scare us into giving away our freedoms.

For many years, I remember needed a piece of photo id with my ticket to get through TSA security checkpoints. What were you able to do instead? Just give a ticket?

You didn't even need that, you just walked through some metal detectors and you could hang out near the gate and greet your loved ones coming off the plane. You didn't need a ticket. You didn't need ID. You didn't even need an intent to fly.
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