Senators Want to Limit TSA’s Use of Facial Recognition
The use of facial recognition technology by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in under scrutiny. A group of bipartisan senators want more oversight and say they are concerned about travelers’ privacy and civil liberties.
The group of 14 lawmakers called on Senate leaders to use the upcoming reauthorization of the Federal Aviation Administration as an opportunity to place more checks and limits to TSA’s use of the technology.
“This technology poses significant threats to our privacy and civil liberties, and Congress should prohibit TSA’s development and deployment of facial recognition tools until rigorous congressional oversight occurs”, the letter says.
Congress passed the Aviation and Transportation Security Act back in 2001. It established the Transportation Security Administration and authorized it to use biometric technologies for security screening. At the time, fingerprints were the “best known and most widely used” biometric. But the senators say that the TSA leveraged this authorization to begin rolling out facial recognition technology on travelers, representing the first facial recognition enabled government checkpoint in the country.
The technology is currently in use at 84 airports around the country and is planned to expand in the coming years to more than 400 airports covered by TSA.
The letter also note that TSA has failed to show that this practice actually makes air travel safer. They have shown no evidence that more false identification documents have been discovered since the introduction of facial recognition.
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