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Facial Recognition Scanners To Replace Boarding Passes, No Effective Opt-Out

posted by Fnord666 on Tuesday April 23 2019, @04:51PM   Printer-friendly
from the 1984-is-a-warning-not-a-guideline dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

A conversation between a passenger and an airline has gone viral, largely because people find it intensely creepy.

MacKenzie Fegan went to the airport last week. As with normal flights, she was expecting at some point to present her boarding card in order to get on her plane. However, she found all she had to do was look at a camera, and at no point was asked for her pass.

As convenient as that sounds, she had questions, which she put to the airline, JetBlue, in a now-viral thread.

I just boarded an international @JetBlue flight. Instead of scanning my boarding pass or handing over my passport, I looked into a camera before being allowed down the jet bridge. Did facial recognition replace boarding passes, unbeknownst to me? Did I consent to this?
— MacKenzie Fegan (@mackenzief) April 17, 2019

Fegan had several pressing follow-up questions, such as "how" and "who exactly has my face on record?".

"Presumably these facial recognition scanners are matching my image to something in order to verify my identity," she wrote. "How does JetBlue know what I look like?"

So how concerned should we be that companies like JetBlue have access to this data?

Original Submission

 
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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by donkeyhotay on Tuesday April 23 2019, @08:21PM (4 children)

    by donkeyhotay (2540) on Tuesday April 23 2019, @08:21PM (#834022)

    My biggest worry with things like this is the huge degree of reliance on, and trust of, data systems. If the computer says you're not Bob Loblaw, then you're not Bob Loblaw no matter what the truth is. I work every day with data that is incorrect. If someone can mis-enter a correct address, why can't someone mis-enter a name with whatever sort of data element has your "face" in it. Why can't a coder accidentally mix up two identities in a UX?

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  • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @11:40PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 23 2019, @11:40PM (#834107)

    bah, nothing that serious could ever happen [engadget.com]

  • (Score: 2) by Gaaark on Wednesday April 24 2019, @11:52AM (2 children)

    by Gaaark (41) on Wednesday April 24 2019, @11:52AM (#834292) Journal

    I'm Mike...from Canmore!

    --
    --- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @06:59PM (1 child)

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 24 2019, @06:59PM (#834458)

      You're from Kenmore? [wikipedia.org]
      Are you here to fix my dishwasher?