Bipartisan Senators Push for Facial Recognition Restrictions at Airports

A bipartisan group of senators has called on House leaders to use the upcoming Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization bill to restrict the use of facial recognition technology at airports across the country.

On a letter on Thursday to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DN.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), 14 senators cited concerns about potential violations of people’s privacy and civil liberties, and asked additional congressional oversight before Transportation Security. Administration (TSA) expands technology.

“This technology poses significant threats to our privacy and civil liberties, and Congress should prohibit the TSA’s development and deployment of facial recognition tools until rigorous congressional oversight occurs,” the senators wrote in their letter, led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D- Oregon), John Kennedy (R-La.) and Roger Marshall (R-Kan.).

O The TSA currently uses facial recognition technology in 84 airports with the stated goal of expanding to more than 400 airports. Travelers at these airports have the option of using TSA scanners to place their passport photo into a reader or inserting their identity documents into a machine and then looking into a camera to have their face scanned. The machine then compares the two images to verify the traveler’s identity before a TSA officer approves the check.

Photos taken during the facial recognition check “are not stored or saved after a positive identification match, except in a limited testing environment to evaluate the effectiveness of the technology,” the TSA said on its website.

While the agency considers the technology “a significant security enhancement” that “improves traveler convenience,” senators expressed concern about potential future applications of this technology.

“The potential for misuse of this technology goes far beyond airport security checkpoints. Once Americans become accustomed to government facial recognition scanners, it will be much easier for the government to scan citizens’ faces everywhere, from entering government buildings to passive surveillance on public properties like parks, schools and sidewalks.” , they wrote.

The senators noted that while the technology is currently optional for travelers at airports, they cited the TSA administrator’s remarks last April that “we will get to the point where we require biometrics at all levels.”

The senators urged Schumer and McConnell to use the FAA reauthorization — a bill expected to pass this Congress — to restrict the TSA’s development of this technology.

“The scope of government use of facial recognition on Americans will expand exponentially under TSA plans, with little or no public discourse or congressional oversight,” they wrote.

“The FAA reauthorization bill is an important opportunity to provide much-needed oversight of the TSA’s facial recognition program,” the senators continued. “If Congress delays, the TSA’s facial recognition infrastructure will soon be installed in hundreds of cities across America, and it will be much more difficult to control the federal government’s facial recognition surveillance.”

The Hill reached out to Schumer, McConnell and the TSA for a response.