General Intelligence

Border Patrol Has Used Facial Recognition to Scan More Than 16 Million Fliers — and Caught Just 7 Imposters

A new report lays out CBP’s shoddy implementation of facial recognition technology

Dave Gershgorn
OneZero
Published in
5 min readSep 4, 2020

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Photo illustration, source: Yasin Akgul/Getty Images

The agency that runs the United States’ airport and border facial recognition program has failed to properly tell the public about how it works, a new report has found. In whole, the report reads like a major red flag: The U.S. government is charging ahead with the adoption of this questionable technology, and it’s not informing the public or keeping proper tabs on accuracy.

By law, the Customs and Border Patrol is supposed to inform the public when facial recognition is being used by putting up clear, legible signs telling people that their faces are being scanned and how they can opt out. The department is also supposed to put accurate, up-to-date information online about its facial recognition, and provide information through its call center.

Signs disclosing the use of facial recognition were hidden behind bigger signs at airports, and some contained outdated information.

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Dave Gershgorn
OneZero

Senior Writer at OneZero covering surveillance, facial recognition, DIY tech, and artificial intelligence. Previously: Qz, PopSci, and NYTimes.