Orlando airport unveils face scans
Orlando International Airport will become the first U.S. airport to process all arriving and departing passengers with facial-recognition equipment, officials announced.
The move represents an expansion of a Customs and Border Protection experimental program that has placed cameras at 13 airports to screen passengers leaving the country or returning from overseas.
The verification process, where a camera scans the traveler’s face to compare it to Department of Homeland Security travel databases, takes less than 2 seconds and has a 99 percent match rate, according to CBP.
“We are at a critical turning point in the implementation of a biometric entry-exit system, and we’ve found a path forward that transforms travel for all travelers,” CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said.
The goal is to electronically screen passengers quickly and efficiently.
Yet privacy advocates question how the images will be used and how a traveler will be treated if rejected by the equipment. U.S. citizens at these airports can opt out, but two U.S. senators sent a letter last month to the Department of Homeland Security urging that formal rules be implemented before the program is expanded.
Other U.S. airports where CBP has facial-recognition equipment are Miami, Atlanta, New York JFK, San Diego, Houston Intercontinental and Hobby, Washington Dulles, Las Vegas and Chicago O’Hare.
The equipment is also at Preclearance airports overseas, where travelers clear customs and immigration before getting on the plane, in Aruba, Abu Dhabi and Ireland’s Shannon and Dublin airports.