The Establishment of Facial Recognition in Airports

Travel is supposed to be an uplifting experience. We go to foreign lands for new experiences and adventures, but getting to them almost always involves going through an airport. Airports are strange places, and we would hate to live in them permanently; yet, for various reasons, we accept them and even wait in lines to be patted down by security guards. In the past, there was none of this; all you needed was your airline ticket and you were ready to go. Most countries didn't even bother checking western passports. They were just grateful for any tourist income they could get. But now, in our changing world, travel is no longer the care-free experience that it once was. Security is the number one priority today since the threat of an attack or trafficking of illegal substances is all too real. The way airports are doing security, though, is going high tech. Many are now using image APIs which allow the use of facial recognition technology to scan entire crowds. They are hoping that the approach will do away with long check-in procedures and allow people to pass through airports with relative ease.

Today, the technology to do it certainly exists. Smartphone brands have been using facial recognition on their devices for at least eight years now. But now the software is at the point where it really can pick out faces in a crowd, identify them, and then check them against a database automatically, without any human involvement required. For some, this new approach is a breath of fresh air. Facial scanning could potentially put an end to long queues and make it easier for people to move around airports unimpeded by ranks of security staff. But there's a downside. Privacy advocates worry that technology is moving us towards a more and more dystopian future where every aspect of our lives is controlled. Many passengers are already voicing concerns about the fact that technology can track them virtually wherever they go.

Airports are also using more biometric data. They could use things like thumbprints to identify people quickly and get them through customs safely. The technology is still very much in the early stages; but the price has come down tremendously, and now it is more feasible than ever before. British Airways says that it has been using facial recognition for domestic flights in the UK for about eight years now. It says that it allows the company to offer better services to domestic travelers, preventing them from having to continuously go through security. In the US, it is a similar story. Biometrics have been a part of the country's immigration policy since the mid-1990s, though they are not consistently enforced.

How travelers will respond to these latest changes is anyone's guess. However, airports are allowing people to opt-out if they wish and go through regular security checks. In a way, that provides some relief for those concerned about privacy. But whether you can ever really turn off these systems remains an open question.