Technology

Got a lot of attitude when telling them I preferred to opt out. Signs posted everywhere informing you of the right and the agent felt so put upon when asked. To the point that I mentioned to supervisor and she tried to over apologize like she cares and was going to talk to the agent, but she didn't give a shit. It's an intimidation/peer pressure thing, also they do scan your face, and then you can ask them to discard after the fact... But how many of us think that data is actually "gone" after they've collected it?

More likely you still have a scan somewhere in system, now just with an added flag labeling you as a difficult

If only there was some government organization in place that could propose and pass legislation to limit the TSA.

Cool, can we end the TSA already? I'd much rather go back to how things were pre-9/11, with a few upgrades here and there.

I'm very pro privacy, but I'm just going to say out loud that it's not like US state and federal governments don't already have photos of your face that can be used to track you. The alternative is to hand over your ID, the thing the government printed after capturing and storing a picture of your face.

My pitchforks are saved for companies that track your location and interactions using facial recognition combined with social media posts. Or CCTV, of course.

Last time I refused it the agent was completely confused and dumbfounded despite having a sign saying it's optional right next to them

So following the same path as the full body scanners. Cool, cool cool cool.

Ted Cruz, lol.

But i need a $220 thousand dollar private flight to Dallas to meet the guy i met on Match.com because this is my One Chance and if it doesn't work i can steal his house

Any data released in what percentage are refusing it? This hardly seems necessary to make it mandatory - I've never seen anyone refuse it in my many hours standing in TSA lines. I've also never been asked if I have a preference, only told in a typical grumpy Tsa voice to look at the camera. There are cameras all over the damn airport - I don't believe they aren't capturing and potentially using recognition algorithms on other cameras as well.

I think its great to see there are a few spines left on Capitol Hill interested in pushing back a bit though.

They put up signs that the scan will be deleted after verification, but I am guessing that is a misdirection and a hash of the scan is saved like how fingerprint scanners work. Otherwise there would be no need for the scanners since a person is there to verify the scan already...

I opt out aggressively, but they make it so hard. Once I even approached the agent and the camera was directly already in my face, so I hold my hand up to try to block it and say, “I don’t want this,” but apparently they had already gotten my image before I blocked the camera and the TSA agent said “well, you’re verified.” So much for opting out.

Another time, I was going on an international flight. At the gate, the airline is scanning everyone’s face. I quickly searched the internet about it and found some Reddit post indicating it’s not mandatory at all, but sure enough they’re treating it like it is. When I get to the front, I tell the guy, “I’m not doing this.” And he says “Well, it’s the only way to get on the plane!” I continue to protest citing their privacy policy, which I had learned about moments before. He kinda scoffs and waves me over the to gate desk.

I walk past him and to the gate lady, she checks my passport and hands me a paper boarding pass. I already had a boarding pass on my phone, but ok. Well, then I walk past the guy who was scanning faces to board the plane and he doesn’t pay any attention to me. I realize then that I could’ve skipped talking to the gate agent all together and just boarded. Wow, these biometrics are so secure! That said, everyone else in line just did as they were asked like a bunch of sheep, some even smiling for the camera while their biometrics were harvested.

I e.g. some EU airports, you have separate lines for passport check by an officer, and lines for passport & face scan machines. This way you can choose which one to use, when you enter/exit the EU.