Here’s the letter from 14 senators criticizing TSA facial recognition at airports

The TSA has been planning to expand facial recognition to a whopping 430 U.S. airports over the next few years — but a bipartisan group of 14 senators is now challenging it.

Facial recognition “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,” reads part of the May 2 letter (by Gizmodo) of the Sens.

They later add that “this powerful surveillance technology implemented by the TSA does not make air travel safer” and suggest that the TSA’s current 3% error rate would lead to 68,000 mismatches per day if it were expanded to all US airports.

And, they argue, there is a slippery slope: “Once Americans become accustomed to the government’s facial recognition scans, it will be much easier for the government to scan citizens’ faces everywhere, from entering government buildings to surveillance. passive on public properties such as parks, schools and sidewalks.”

Because now? There is a hint in the letter: “Congress should address this issue in the 2020 Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization.” Congress is currently facing a May 10 deadline to reauthorize the FAA — just a week away. Maybe the senators think they can use this to their advantage.

The TSA has been testing facial recognition systems since 2015 and has gradually expanded them while highlighting their potential. In 2022, the TSA’s chief innovation officer suggested to us that it could automate things like TSA PreCheck so you don’t have to sign up and pay for fast track.

Here is the full letter:

I recently had my first TSA facial scan at the San Jose airport, where an agent admitted to me that the machines don’t scan very well. I wondered if this might have something to do with the way the machines were pointed at the airport’s brightly lit windows.