Do you opt out of the facial scan at the airport?
Do you opt out of the facial scan at the airport?
Original question by @wuphysics87@lemmy.ml
For those of you who travel in the united states, you'll know they now have facial recognition scans when checking your id. You can opt out by telling them you don't want to take the picture. I do every time, but I wonder what the point of the scan is if you can just opt out. That given, why do you think they do it? What prevents them from forcing you to do it?
To those of you who live outside of the united states, have you seen a similar increase in security at your airports?
Yes.
Even if it didn't explicitly stop my biometric data from being taken and transferred to a government database every single time I fly, it would be a vote against the system itself existing. The whole reason they are allowing people to opt out right now is to test how acceptable it is to people, to hopefully make it mandatory given too little pushback from the public.
Opting out doesn't just protect your biometric data now, it protects everyone in the future from having their biometric data taken from them without a choice if this system is allowed to spread unopposed.
Haven’t flown in years. Didn’t know this was a thing. Creepy.
Yes, every time. Fuck that
It also takes longer for the scan. I was with a group and figured I'd hold everyone up so positioned myself last, and it was 2 seconds to hand them my ID. The only way this the scan is more convenient is for people who don't care to pull out their ID or are too timid to say "no facial"
Yeah it’s weird. I always opt out and it seems to make no difference whatsoever.
Here's my secret: I don't fly anymore.
Never encountered one.
Last time I flew was October of '23. No face scanning then, when did this start?
No use for me. DHS and probably every other three letter agency in the US have my prints, name, and picture on file after getting various work visas a while back.
No, and it helps tremendously, if you leave and enter the country.
Like privacy wise it sucks but, I was the only one in my family that wasn't stopped for manual check at customs because I was already in the system
No, it's absolutely pointless to opt out.
A fatalist take like this doesn't help anyone. Do you lock your doors at night even though you're not be continuously robbed? It's always worth it to try and protect yourself.
I applaud your idealism.
My take on it is there's more downside doing the facial scan than opting out. The worst case is the scan can miss-identify you and then you get pulled aside for questioning. The worst case for opting out is raising suspicion with an agent? Sure all the security cameras could be doing facial recognition and come up with false positives, but why add another opportunity to be misidentified by doing the scan?
I don't know what face scan as I haven't flown into the states in a very long time.
In Canada we have a machine at customs that takes your picture when you come into the country. This isn't optional. I take the opportunity to make the absolute most ridiculous face I can every time and it brings me copious amount of joy. It then prints out a little slip that I give to the customs person at the gate who is usually chatting and doesn't even look at it. I imagine those slips go somewhere, though I couldn't really care less where.