Airports Are Normalizing Facial Recognition in the United States

The quest for total security has transformed airports into a playground for surveillance tech

If you want to see what the future of facial recognition looks like, go to your local airport.

Instead of asking to see your boarding pass when stepping onto an international flight, airline attendants ask you to direct your face toward a camera. After a moment, your name appears on a screen with a little green check mark. Cameras scan your face when you approach the border agent when entering or leaving the country. At airports, more than any other public spaces today, facial recognition technology has become pervasive and inescapable.

Airports have a long track record as security tech testing grounds.

Facial recognition systems in airports are used to verify the identities of travelers. The Transportation Security Administration and U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) run captured images against a database containing some travelers’ faces to verify citizens and visa holders entering and exiting the country. Private companies use facial recognition in airports too: American Airlines, Delta, United, and JetBlue are all either testing or expanding their use of…