Senators Say TSA's Facial Recognition Program Is Out of Control (gizmodo.com) 69
A bipartisan group of 12 senators has urged the TSA inspector general to investigate the agency's use of facial recognition technology, citing concerns over privacy, civil liberties, and its expansion to over 430 airports without sufficient safeguards or proven effectiveness. Gizmodo reports: "This technology will soon be in use at hundreds of major and mid-size airports without an independent evaluation of the technology's precision or an audit of whether there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect passenger privacy," the senators wrote. The letter was signed by Jeffrey Merkley (D-OR), John Kennedy (R-LA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Roger Marshall (R-Kansas), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Steve Daines (R-MT), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), and Peter Welch (D-VT).
While the TSA's facial recognition program is currently optional and only in a few dozen airports, the agency announced in June that it plans to expand the technology to more than 430 airports. And the senators' letter quotes a talk given by TSA Administrator David Pekoske in 2023 in which he said "we will get to the point where we require biometrics across the board." [...] The latest letter urges the TSA's inspector general to evaluate the agency's facial recognition program to determine whether it's resulted in a meaningful reduction in passenger delays, assess whether it's prevented anyone on no-fly lists from boarding a plane, and identify how frequently it results in identity verification errors.
While the TSA's facial recognition program is currently optional and only in a few dozen airports, the agency announced in June that it plans to expand the technology to more than 430 airports. And the senators' letter quotes a talk given by TSA Administrator David Pekoske in 2023 in which he said "we will get to the point where we require biometrics across the board." [...] The latest letter urges the TSA's inspector general to evaluate the agency's facial recognition program to determine whether it's resulted in a meaningful reduction in passenger delays, assess whether it's prevented anyone on no-fly lists from boarding a plane, and identify how frequently it results in identity verification errors.
found the fool (Score:2)
out of control
No longer under management, direction, or regulation; unmanageable or unruly. For example, Housing costs are out of control, or The children were getting out of hand again. The first term uses control in the sense of "restraint," a usage dating from the late 1500s; the variant uses hand in the sense of "power" or "authority," and dates from the late 1800s.
Stating something is "out of control" does not merely imply that it beyond your own authority.
I am guessing that English is not your first language but if it is then you have my sympathies.
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Right, and the Senators are saying TSA leadership is asleep at the wheel and so has left the use of facial recognition "out of control".
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The TSA exists because Congress created it, funds it, and hasn't abolished it.
Its authority is precisely what Congress has granted it, and Congress can give it new instructions at any time.
Same as every other executive branch agency.
TSA needs to go away (Score:5, Informative)
It was created as a kneejerk reaction to 9-11. They have done absolutely zero to make our skies safer. It was started under Bush and I was surprised that Obama didn't get rid of it. Their employees are unskilled people and have way too much authority over travelers. They are also well-known for stealing airport traveler's belongings and money.
They need to go.
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I think most people here are too young to understand the reason for the invasive state of airport security world-wide. The PLO (Yasser Arafat, and company), basically "invented" the idea of bombing an airliner and now everyone is paying the price. Metal detectors and X-rays weren't a thing, prior to this. It got ramped up again, when a bunch of Saudis hijacked four planes and crashed three of them into building in the US. And then again, right after 9/11, we ha
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Since we are being so honest...
History has taught us that religion really doesn't matter. This sort of thing is driven mainly by economic circumstances, coupled with politics. All religions have a history of violence, including non-religious states such as Nazi Germany.
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Why so anonymous, Mr. Honest?
If you read anything published by jihadist organizations, they say either they hate non-Muslims, they love death, or they war to bring about the Caliphate. So your reasoning and analysis about the causes of violent jihadism is kind of silly compared to the explanations from primary sources. In other fields we cause this type of reasoning "pseudo science".
For reference: https://www.konstantinkisin.co... [konstantinkisin.com]
Re: TSA needs to go away (Score:2)
Re:TSA needs to go away (Score:5, Insightful)
Baggage X-rays and metal detectors started because of the rash of attempted DB Cooper copycats. That had nothing to do with Palestinians. The restriction on liquids was to protect against a theoretical attack involving mixing chemicals to produce an explosive while on the plane (in practice this would be completely impractical).
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Baggage X-rays and metal detectors started because of the rash of attempted DB Cooper copycats. That had nothing to do with Palestinians. The restriction on liquids was to protect against a theoretical attack involving mixing chemicals to produce an explosive while on the plane (in practice this would be completely impractical).
The really baffling thing is that you can freeze a water bottle and bring it on the plane, because that's considered to not be a liquid. How such a seemingly arbitrary policy makes us safer is beyond my comprehension.
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I'm guessing the explosives compounds they're looking for don't freeze well. That's a complete guess from me, no clue if it's true or not.
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Yeah, that's the only explanation I can think of that's even slightly plausible. I mean, any liquid freezes if it is cold enough, but maybe "cold enough" isn't practical to carry through security? No idea, and I'm not about to search for it, because I don't want to end up on some watch list. :-D
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The really baffling thing is that you can freeze a water bottle and bring it on the plane, because that's considered to not be a liquid. How such a seemingly arbitrary policy makes us safer is beyond my comprehension.
Please explain how you would make a bomb from water.
Many ignorant TSA agents won't let you take ice through security anyway.
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The really baffling thing is that you can freeze a water bottle and bring it on the plane, because that's considered to not be a liquid. How such a seemingly arbitrary policy makes us safer is beyond my comprehension.
Please explain how you would make a bomb from water.
AFAIK, you can't, but that doesn't depend on whether it is frozen or not.
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I think the point is that it is very hard to make a liquid explosive from materials that can be frozen and carried through security in normal containers.
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I always strongly suspected this was mostly a lie anyway, and they just wanted people to not be able to bring their own drinks into the airport--and instead buy overpriced airport and in-flight drinks instead :)
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Not counting 911, the biggest lose of lives from a terrorist bomb on an airplane was the Air India bombing perpetuated by Sikhs seeking their own homeland.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Re: TSA needs to go away (Score:2)
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Metal detectors were common before 2001. X-ray for luggage, too. Only the bodyscanners and generally extended security were new.
Re:TSA needs to go away (Score:4, Interesting)
So was all of the identification they carried. Making the whole real ID thing pointless.
Re: TSA needs to go away (Score:3, Interesting)
No ID is required to travel domestically as that would violate right to travel, and there is no requirement for an American to have any ID. TSA will ask a few questions if you have no ID, so arrive a few minutes early. The TSA website even says so https://www.tsa.gov/travel/sec... [tsa.gov]. See section "Donâ(TM)t Have Your Acceptable ID?"
TSA are not police. They are not even officers though they pretend they are.
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How does that work if you have to enter a federal building?
Re: TSA needs to go away (Score:4, Interesting)
No ID is required to travel domestically as that would violate right to travel
This is incorrect.
The statute requires identification, unless excepted by the TSA.
You can argue otherwise, as that portion of the statute hasn't been fought in court yet, but it is the law.
Title 49, S. 1540.107(c)
An individual may not enter a sterile area or board an aircraft if the individual does not present a verifying identity document as defined in 1560.3 of this chapter, when requested for purposes of watch list matching under 1560.105(c), unless otherwise authorized by TSA on a case-by-case basis.
S. 1560.105(c) defines what must be required:
(1) An unexpired passport issued by a foreign government.
(2) An unexpired document issued by a U.S. Federal, State, or tribal government that includes the following information for the individual:
(i) Full name.
(ii) Date of birth.
(iii) Photograph.
(3) Such other documents that TSA may designate as valid verifying identity documents.
TSA are not police. They are not even officers though they pretend they are.
You're completely right, they're not.
However- they can detain you, and remand you to Port police.
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However- they can detain you, and remand you to Port police.
If they have the authority to detain, they are, de facto, police.
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Civilians have authority to detain depending on situation and jurisdiction.
That does not make them police.
What makes someone a police officer is being an accredited law enforcement officer, which TSA are not.
Re: TSA needs to go away (Score:2)
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Do you think the security concerns for the superpower that has pissed off the largest amount of terrorists on the planet are the same for 2 German march-over states?
Otherwise, thank you for your input.
Re: TSA needs to go away (Score:2)
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The same Poland that is the military highway between Europe and Moscow. That's hilarious.
The extent that the Russians give a shit about Poland is as a buffer state between them and Europe. They couldn't be bothered to "terrorize" that country.
But please- do move to Poland. Do us all a favor
Re: TSA needs to go away (Score:4, Interesting)
Makes sense. I did a few trips to the US around 9-11 and after it felt like I arrived to a dystopia where everyone was considered guilty unless proven innocent.
It's not getting better and the direction is towards an autocracy.
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THIS!
So much this. Defeat Bin Laden, return to pre-9/11.
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I did a few trips to the US around 9-11 and after it felt like I arrived to a dystopia where everyone was considered guilty unless proven innocent.
The irony is that 9-11 will never happen again, and not because of anything to do with TSA or airport security whatsoever.
Passengers and bystanders on a plane will NEVER allow something like this to happen again. They will fight like hell to physically stop a threat of this nature, whether or not they claim to have a bomb.
In fact, this change happened so unbelievably fast that when passengers on United Airlines Flight 93 - the one that crashed in Pennsylvania - found out via cell phone that planes were bein
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Never say never - there will be a next time for most things.
Just use a cargo plane instead.
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I'm specifically talking about passenger airplanes being hijacked in that manner and used as suicide bombs.
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Not just restrained or stopped. There have been multiple documented cases where someone tried to breach the cockpit and the passengers have literally beaten or choked the would-be hijacker to death for their trouble.
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The Autocracy is here right now. I do not know EXACTLY what we are heading for in America; however, it will be worse than any Autocracy that previously existed. The machines...
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Unfortunately, this is how bureaucrats function. When something tragic happens, the only thing they can do is write laws to lock things down tighter, based on the assumption that "if we were only doing X then we would have prevented Y". You see this at every level of government, right down to the smallest local level.
As an example, the horrific Sandy Hook elementary school shooting occurred, shocking the country. Our rural local school district, in direct response to that shooting, decided to lock down secu
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Re: TSA needs to go away (Score:2)
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It was created as a kneejerk reaction to 9-11. They have done absolutely zero to make our skies safer. It was started under Bush and I was surprised that Obama didn't get rid of it. Their employees are unskilled people and have way too much authority over travelers. They are also well-known for stealing airport traveler's belongings and money.
They need to go.
If you bring the people, I'll bring the pitchforks.
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Let's not forget the exceedingly low caliber of the airport securitygoons. Anyone else remember the Clinton economy? One of the things that shocked me at how fantastically good things were back then, and one that I've not seen matched since, even during the Obama boom years; was when I moved to California and saw on the news that retail shops like the department stores in the Stanford Shopping Center were offering signing bonuses... to the tune of multiple thousands of dollars... to workers who would sign
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Is it fair to call it a reaction to something planned and carried-out by the CIA?
A video of a US senator passing TSA to his flight (Score:2)
Lawmakers are not inconvenienced in the slightest by the TSA. Hence they have no incentive to do anything about it. We, however, are underlings.
https://youtu.be/dN8OtqP9eBA [youtu.be]
Or how often it just plain doesn't work (Score:4, Interesting)
I recently entered the country and elected to have a facial recognition scan. The other line was hundreds of people long. Instead, I walked up to the counter, waited for the one person ahead of me to be processed, and then proceeded with the scan. I couldn't recognize my face, despite it looking exactly like my passport photo with no changes. I was then manually processed through. I asked why it couldn't recognize me but wasn't given a direct answer. But reading between the lines, it was clear that it was not an unusual occurrence. That sure made me feel nice and safe. Not.
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I'd downmod your -1 anonymous ass for totally not getting the point. But that's not an option, redundant, and I couldn't tell you about it.
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I bet this inconvenienced you for maybe five minutes. And then you were allowed to enter the country and go about your business.
I don't see where in his post he complained about being inconvenienced. I think he was making a different point.
Re: Or how often it just plain doesn't work (Score:2)
I'd expect facial recognition to be a pretty fuzzy tool to use. Too many people that looks the same.
It could work well enough to exclude people from suspicion, but that's about it.
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I haveGlobalEntry and rarely even have to show my passport entering the US. In that specific scenario, comparing Global Entry members against flight manifests for a particular time window it is good enough. TSA checkpoints are a different matter though and I believe the technology currently has the capability to reliably handle a locust 3 orders of magnitude larger.
Re: Or how often it just plain doesn't work (Score:3, Interesting)
After clearing immigration and customs, those catching another flight enter the TSA queue for the domestic flight.
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I don't travel abroad often, but my wife and I were re-entering to the US from a country that is probably fairly high on the list of ones they scrutinize extra. I was totally ready for some deep questions and to show my passport, etc to the TSA upon entering the USA.
A TSA agent held what looked like a webcam up to my face, then to my wife, and we were immediately cleared. I was shocked how streamlined it was. We weren't asked for our passport or anything else, nor asked a single question. Literally took 5 s
Re: Or how often it just plain doesn't work (Score:2)
Works? (Score:3)
to evaluate the agency's facial recognition program to determine whether it's resulted in a meaningful reduction in passenger delays, assess whether it's prevented anyone on no-fly lists from boarding a plane, and identify how frequently it results in identity verification errors.
Oh, and tracking of the population in a panopticon, by the state.
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to evaluate the agency's facial recognition program to determine whether it's resulted in a meaningful reduction in passenger delays, assess whether it's prevented anyone on no-fly lists from boarding a plane, and identify how frequently it results in identity verification errors.
Oh, and tracking of the population in a panopticon, by the state.
Ironically enough “tracking” is handled by the cellular-powered GPS-enabled electronic leash society brainwashed citizens into wearing at all times.
Damn the irony. A plane full of hundreds of them enables us with the 21st Century technology to still lose the fucking plane.
Cancun Cruz (Score:1)
> The letter was signed by...Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Rumor is the cam caught him sneaking to Cancun during a blizzard instead of staying to manage state response.
I see the problem (Score:3)
The letter was signed by [...] Ted Cruz (R-TX)
TSA facial recognition can tell who's going to Cancun, this cannot be allowed
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TSA facial recognition can tell who's going to Cancun, this cannot be allowed
LOL. There will be exceptions to the rules. Ted Cruz will suffer no difficulties with this.
TSA and ICE overreach ... (Score:4, Interesting)
2 out of 3 USA citizens live inside ICE jurisdiction, anyone who visits any port, airport, or similar TSA have jurisdiction ...
And they both mostly ignore the rights of USA citizens, and non-US citizens basically have no rights ..
How is it a privacy concern (Score:2)
So hear me out before the negative moderation.
They already use scanners that can basically show your naked body (but they "invert" the image for the display visible to the public), they x-ray your belongings, they capture you on dozens of cameras, and you are in a public place in full view of dozens of people. And most importantly they ask for your identification and compare it to a ticket with your name on it.
How is it any more of a violation of privacy to scan your face? About the only way I could see t