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JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

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Re: JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

#171
post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already do this based on names. A former coworker shared his name with his grandfather, and both of them matched the name of a man on the terror watchlist. Naturally, the man was much younger than both of them and of a different nationality, but that didn't stop his grandfather (~50 years older!) from getting stopped and questioned every time he flew.

I was wondering about this. From what I hear it's basically impossible to get a name removed from this watchlist, so short of actually legally changing your name there's basically nothing you can do!?

> short of actually legally changing your name

Shh! Don't let the terrorists know!

Re: JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

#172
post #158
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Borders are different. There is a right to free movement within a country. Not so across borders.

There are numerous countries without unlimited right of free movement. China, Burma, and (to a much lesser extent) India come to mind. Also de facto limitations in highly violent places like Syria, parts of Iraq, Somalia et al, but I assume you were referring to a de jure right

I don't know if they still do it, but in the 90s if you drove between provinces in Egypt there were police checkpoints reviewing ID, reason for travel and levying a fee although I don't know how official that last part was.

Re: JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

#173

It is annoying that the title of the article is inaccurate. They use an API that calls external government servers to compare the photos.

To be fair, it's not clear how these devices work. It sounds like they are taking a photo, submittiting it to an API and waiting for a result. However FTA linked in the Twitter exchange "preloaded photo databased of all the passengers".

It implies that the devices that JetBlue are using for boarding, already have all the photos in them. If this hardware belongs to JetBlue (rather than CBP/DHS/etc), then one would be correct in saying that JetBlue has the passengers photos. So we really don't know either way how this works.

I'll also add my personal anecdote: Recently I flew internationally out of SFO (I live in the Bay Area) and CBP was there to take "exit photos" of everyone with similar style devices. This was not part of the boarding pass process as we still had to do scan tickets afterwards.

Re: JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

#175
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's important to know who is crossing the border, in both directions. Why? And if there exists an important reason to know that someone is exiting the country does that same criterion not also apply to exiting a state or city or neighborhood? I am not being sarcastic; I am genuinely unable to come up with a reason it's important to track who leaves almost any place, except in highly unusual cases (e.g. "OK guys, c…

Its worth pointing out that the US is literally the only country in the world that I have visited, in my recollection, that does not have passport control upon exiting the country.

I know it's not quite the same thing, but most countries in the EU have no passport control upon exiting or entering the country as long as it's within the Schengen zone.

So France has basically no idea who shows up from Germany or leaves via Belgium. The countries on the external borders are supposed to handle all that.

Now I suppose it's possible there is a lot of data exchanged in real time and so on, but it's also possible that is a complete mess and nobody really knows anything, especially about citizens (GDPR).

Re: JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

#176

Most relevant details, from the last link [1]: > It took her photo, comparing her picture to a preloaded photo databased of all the passengers with tickets on this flight, and then she got a check mark, indicating she was cleared to board. The whole process took about five to six seconds. > The Aruba experiment is expected to last somewhere between 45 and 90 days. > "We're basically capturing that picture at the boar…

> It doesn't seem much different from the way you're already required to show your physical passport and they check your photo manually.

Well, now they can check your identity anywhere with a camera removing all agency. Yay!

Re: JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They don’t “need to know” for reasons which are of significant practical benefit to citizens/residents. Staying for more than six months is usually one of the main measures to determine if one is resident and should pay taxes in the country, so there is at least a very good reason (although I don't know how much this applies to the USA specifically).

Anyone who earns income working in the USA has to pay US income and payroll taxes.

you pay income tax in the country you live, not where you work (i.e. if you were employed by a US company, but working remotely in the UK, you'd pay income tax in the UK)

Re: JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

#178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have yet to see another Stalin with all this new tech. Something I hope we never see. I wish Gulag Archipelago was history 101 at university.

Xi Jinping is trying pretty hard.

Stalin is 10M deads in the lead.

Re: JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

#179
post #21

Privacy concerns aside, I can't wait to read the "Facial Recognition let me on the wrong flight when I got in the wrong line by accident" articles that are going to come out of this. Unless these systems have some fantastic (1e-6) P_{false alarm} rate or better, people are going to be mistaken for other people and let on the wrong flight sooner or later.

Honestly I don't care that much about such case. The system is not there to babysit you. In other transportation system if you get on the wrong car/bus, it's your problem.

So you should check your flight and gate number for your own benefit.

Not to mention the chance would be very low, you have to go the wrong flight and the system have to have false positive at you.

Re: JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face

#180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have yet to see another Stalin with all this new tech. Something I hope we never see. I wish Gulag Archipelago was history 101 at university.

Xi Jinping is trying pretty hard.

Our politicians are more than happy to let the Chinese beta test authoritarian technology on their citizenry before we can deploy the same in what remains of Western democracies.

We criticize them just a little, by principle, but as soon as the tech proves effective at controlling population, we adopt the tech "because it works".

"But at what?", one may ask...

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