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U.S. Needs to Tighten Oversight of How Airlines Use Facial Recognition Data: New Government Report

Sean O'Neill photo
Sean O'Neill
Delta Facial Recognition

Photo Credit: Delta Air Lines reveals their new biometric scanning technology at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, Georgia, on Monday, November 19, 2018. Facial recognition is popular, but a report published by the U.S. Government Accountability Office has found that U.S. Customs stumbled with the tech. Flickr / Delta News Hub

Skift Take

Facial recognition tech divides people. They say either that it's faster and contactless, or that it invades people's privacy. But questions about data security matter, too.

The pandemic has deepened aviation sector interest in facial recognition technology for providing a more contactless way to process passengers. This week alone, Spirit Airlines, the U.S. budget carrier, began testing the biometric technology at some gates at New York's La Guardia and Chicago's O'Hare airports. Also this week, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration said it had begun testing a self-service facial recognition system to verify traveler identification at Washington, D.C.'s Reagan National. But the push to adopt the technology needs to come with checks on how it's implemented. That's a takeaway from a September report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, which found that U.S. Customs and Border Protection has stumbled when it came to auditing partners for data security in its collection o

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