Key Points:
- The Traveler Privacy Protection Act aims to prevent the TSA from collecting Americans’ facial biometric data.
- The technology is currently in place for international flights at Kansas City airport.
- Sen. Marshall raises concerns about privacy invasion.
Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall is among a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators who are sponsoring the Traveler Privacy Protection Act, which would prevent the Transportation Security Administration from using the nation’s airports as sites to collect Americans’ facial biometric data.
Sen. Marshall said the collection of biometric data has the “potential for those images to be used by the federal government to violate Americans’ civil liberties” and called it “greatly concerning.”
Holiday travelers going through international airports, including Kansas City, could find themselves facing a camera when they get to the front of the security line, which is when TSA agents verify your identity by looking at your driver’s license or passport.
Marshall says the agents have to ask your permission to take your photo and you have a right to say “no.”
Sen. Marshall points out facial recognition is completely voluntary. He says you should have no problem opting out and asking to go through the standard ID verification process, at least while the program is in its pilot phase.
In Kansas City the technology is only in place for international flights right now, but the Transportation Security Administration announced plans to roll it out at more than 400 airports nationwide.
The Traveler Privacy Protection Act would block the roll out.
In the Kansas City airport, Customs and Border Protection inside Kansas City International is taking the photos.
According to TSA, facial recognition technology is “solely used to automate the current manual ID checking process and will not be used for surveillance or any law enforcement purpose.”
“No one has really shown this technology makes us safer. I think at the least what needs to happen is TSA needs to come to Congress and say this is why we need to invade your privacy,” Marshall said.
TSA says it takes concerns about accuracy seriously, but it says the use of biometrics “has the potential to automate the ID and boarding pass verification process for more efficient and secure screening.”
