Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

wired.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 191 posts

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#61

Post by OrgNet »

simion314 wrote: post #58
oceanman888 wrote: post #10

Airport is about the only places that I have no problem with being Facial Recognition as long as the data is correctly handled because it contributes to the safety of so many parties.

What is your limit? What about handing over all your social accounts? fingerprints, DNA , it seems that gradually if a thing can be done it will be done. 2

Can you wear a mask while they do the passport scan? They need know how you look like so they can match the picture with the passport... using a computer or a human.

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#62

Post by ttsda »

kowdermeister wrote: post #27

> Will we only wake up once we no longer have the choice to opt out? yes :/ Many commenters say that your data / picture is in the system already, which is fine, but your passport photo can be 10 - 15 years old and these systems record how you look now. That's the question if you are comfortable providing it. What you can't do anything about is CCTV and I think it's a safe bet that they are already equipped with faci…

Gatwick airport had a ton of facial recognition cameras last time I was there. They had a ring of leds around the lens that lights up in a rotating pattern, it really is difficult not to look directly into the lens due to that.

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#63

Post by crankylinuxuser »

>Research shows that it is particularly unreliable for gender and racial minorities: one study, for example, found a 99 percent accuracy rate for white men, while the error rate for women who have darker skin reached up to 35 percent. This suggests that, for women and people of color, facial recognition could actually cause an increase in the likelihood to be unfairly targeted for additional screening measures.

So this should also be a very good reason to reject this tech for this use. Darker skinned people and women get misclassified even more, and subject to further interrogation.

I may be a white guy (works 99/100)... But I can't just defend my own rights, or all of our rights degrade.

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#64

Post by 9nGQluzmnq3M »

r3bl wrote: post #53
jen729w wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use the ‘smart’ gates at Melbourne regularly. You insert your passport, stand in front of a camera, and one assumes that your current photograph is compared to that of your passport. If they’re the same, you pass. I fail to see the privacy implications. I’m already giving someone my passport details – I must do that to enter or exit the country. That passport already contains my photograph. What privacy am I losing…

Passport scanners at the airports are highly regulated. Facial recognition is not. This is the airline collecting your biometrics — a completely different entity from the border control that usually checks your passport. You insert your passport and that should be it. Border control has already checked your identity. Afterwards, your photo was taken by the airline in order to "verify you". Granted, airlines could get…

You're talking about different things here. The Australian "smart" gates mentioned by the previous poster are border control, and they work by validating a picture your face against the picture in your passport.

YMMV, but I actually find using the smart gates much less invasive than dealing with human immigration officers. The gates do exactly one thing and that's that, whereas with officials there's always an uncomfortable "guilty until proven innocent" feeling (where are you going? where are you coming from?) coupled with the knowledge that borders are largely civil rights free zones, even for citizens.

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#65

Post by dalore »

UweSchmidt wrote: post #13
pelario wrote: post #3

Very click-baity. Below the only part that actually relates to the title: The announcement came as we began to board. Last month, I was at Detroit’s Metro Airport for a connecting flight to Southeast Asia. I listened as a Delta Air Lines staff member informed passengers that the boarding process would use facial recognition instead of passport scanners. As a privacy-conscious person, I was uncomfortable boarding this…

Going against implicit expectations of others and being the only one who does something is maybe the hardest thing humans can do. Opting out could risk holding up the boarding process, possibly missing the flight, unpleasant treatment by security and being pitted against the other passengers - all of it to opt out of something is clearly a dark pattern. All of this is very well understood by the people who designed t…

Yes I asked if I could get a pat down instead of the backscatter x-ray at Heathrow. Was made to feel like a criminal, questioned etc and put under pressure. And then to be told I don't have to get scanned but I can't get on my flight unless I do. There wasn't even an opt out.

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#66

Post by deftnerd »

krick wrote: post #42
CalRobert wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm always sad when I'm the only one opting for a patdown at the airport after Defcon.

Probably that's because I didn't travel to USA yet, but I don't understand why it's sad. Why the hell would you opt for a patdown? What must be the default then?

New tech allows lasers to identify a person from a great distance, even from a drone, using a laser that can analyze a persons heart beat.

[1] https://futurism.com/the-byte/laser-identify-distance-heartb... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24111284

They're already gathering facial recognition biometrics, and I wouldn't be surprised if they've been doing gait analysis biometric identifiers (it's established tech). Adding heart rate would give them three separate identifiers that can be used to identify anyone in a crowd with practically complete confidence.

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#67

Post by maxheadroom »

>Is saving a few minutes worth handing over your most sensitive biometric information?

The problem is that you've already handed this biometric information over; say, when you get a passport. There is no "opt-out" for that context. This is also why RealId was so vehemently opposed[0].

At the end of the day, they're getting your data - one way or another and there is no opt-out for that.

So, to make an appeal on the argument of privacy of data is being woefully ignorant of the fact that this encroachment has been happening for years and it didn't seem to matter very much then.

[0] - https://iapp.org/news/a/why-some-states-wont-comply-with-rea...

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#68

Post by cddotdotslash »

Tepix wrote: post #51
skribbj wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the problem with these exactly?

They show you naked and invade your privacy

"Naked" is a real stretch. It's basically a black and white, lumpy x-ray viewed from a remote control room.

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#69

Post by bighi »

maxheadroom wrote: post #67

> Is saving a few minutes worth handing over your most sensitive biometric information? The problem is that you've already handed this biometric information over; say, when you get a passport. There is no "opt-out" for that context. This is also why RealId was so vehemently opposed[0]. At the end of the day, they're getting your data - one way or another and there is no opt-out for that. So, to make an appeal on the…

And they probably scanned his face one way or another anyway.

Re: I Opted Out of Facial Recognition at the Airport – It Wasn't Easy

#70

Post by userbinator »

dalore wrote: post #65
UweSchmidt wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Going against implicit expectations of others and being the only one who does something is maybe the hardest thing humans can do. Opting out could risk holding up the boarding process, possibly missing the flight, unpleasant treatment by security and being pitted against the other passengers - all of it to opt out of something is clearly a dark pattern. All of this is very well understood by the people who designed t…

Yes I asked if I could get a pat down instead of the backscatter x-ray at Heathrow. Was made to feel like a criminal, questioned etc and put under pressure. And then to be told I don't have to get scanned but I can't get on my flight unless I do. There wasn't even an opt out.

I guess they were also very surprised, because most people would rather not be touched by a stranger.
Post reply on HN