Can you opt out of having your face scanned at the airport? Yes! Here’s how.

There is one thing I am embarrassed to admit: although I have been reporting question and face recognition for Six yearsI’ve allowed airport agents to scan my face. More than once. More than twice. Many times.

There are a number of reasons. First, travel is stressful. I feel time pressure to get to the gate as quickly as possible, as well as social pressure to avoid long lines. (This alone makes me feel like I didn’t really consent to facial scans, but was forced into them.) Additionally, I’m always “randomly selected” for additional screening, perhaps because of my Middle Eastern background. So I’m nervous about doing anything that might cause additional delays or questioning.

But the main reason I didn’t say no to airport facial scanning is actually quite simple: I didn’t know I could opt out.

It turns out that saying “no” is not only possible, but Surprisingly simple At least that’s the theory. Everyone, regardless of nationality, can opt out of domestic U.S. flights. (For international flights, U.S. citizens can opt out, but foreign nationals must submit to a facial scan.) There are some exceptions) Simply look away from the camera or cover your face with a mask, show your ID, and say, “I’m opting out of biometrics. I want the standard verification process.”

In theory, police should manually check your ID and compare it to your face, just as they did before facial recognition. But in practice, There were reports of passengers — even a senator — facing resistance or intimidation When they try to go this route.

The TSA and CBP should also have clear signs informing passengers of their right to opt out. But at many airports, you have to look very, very closely to spot this information. Be prepared to crane your neck at unnatural angles or squint to read very small print!

That’s why the Algorithmic Justice League, a nonprofit organization that exposes the dangers of artificial intelligence, launched an initiative this month called “Freedom Flyer” Raise awareness of people’s right to opt out. Perfect timing: TSA Recorded June 23 was a record day for air travel, with nearly 3 million passengers screened at airports across the country as the summer holidays got underway.

Now is the perfect time to make sure you know your rights when going through airport security and understand exactly what the risks are. The implications extend far beyond air travel.

In the U.S, More than 80 airports The TSA is currently piloting facial recognition technology. The agency aims to roll out the technology to all of the more than 430 airports it covers. debate This automation technology could reduce “friction” at airports – roughly, reducing the time it takes for passengers to get through security.

This should cause some concern, as this type of AI technology has known risks, such as your facial data could be used to identify you. Stolen due to violation You might Mistakenly identified as a criminal suspect and sentenced to prisonNeither of these scenarios are hypothetical; the former occurred due to a CBP system flaw, the latter was committed by the police. AI bias; It is well known that facial recognition technology disproportionately Misidentification of People of Color(A CBP spokesperson insisted that the agency’s facial comparison algorithm “shows little measurable difference in performance based on demographic factors.”)

But as dangerous as facial recognition can be when it goes wrong, more worrisome is what happens if it proves to work as intended. Joy BulawiniThe founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, who is concerned about the use of the technology in airports, said: “The biggest thing for me is the normalisation of surveillance.”

Buolamwini sees facial recognition at airports as a way for the public to get used to having more and more sensitive information stolen. “I think this is going to be a longer-term trajectory,” she said. “They’ve already shown you that trajectory.”

She means TSA’s 2018 roadmapIt distinguishes between two types of facial recognition: One-to-one matching, where the TSA compares the photo in your passport to the photo they take of you at the airport to make sure the photos match. (If you’ve ever used your face to unlock your iPhone, this is the type of facial recognition you’ve used.)

Then there’s one-to-many matching, which compares your image to other people’s images. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and its airline partners already use one-to-many matching, where they compare passengers’ photos to government document databases, such as U.S. passports, for verification, TSA press secretary Carter Langston told me via email.

A particularly worrisome form of one-to-many matching is live biometrics. Minority Report “It’s like they can recognize you just by walking around,” Buolamwini said. If everyone’s face becomes the subject of real-time biometric recognition, then one day when you walk into a drugstore or attend a protest, your likeness could be checked against a criminal database, which could Causing a dangerous chilling effect In the whole society.

The TSA’s own 2018 roadmap states that they aim to use “real-time biometrics” in the future. However, Langston took issue with Buolamwini’s interpretation of that term. “I have never heard anyone involved in the project express that interpretation of the TSA use case. The TSA use case is and will continue to be about identity verification,” he told me.

At the moment, Bulawini says, “You might hear people say, ‘Oh, we only do a one-to-one match. You show us your ID, you show us your face, and we delete the data.’” But she stresses that the full story is much more complicated.

The first thing to know is that if you are not a U.S. citizen, there is no guarantee that your photos will be deleted.

In fact, According to documents from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection“Facial images of in-scope (non-citizen) travelers are also transmitted to the department’s automated biometric identification system (IDENT) and the Department of Homeland Security’s Advanced Identification Technology system (HART). All in-scope travelers’ biometrics are transmitted to IDENT/HART as contact information and retained for 75 years to support immigration, border management, and law enforcement activities.”

This means your photo could remain in the database for the rest of your life. notes “CBP may share information with federal, state, and local authorities, who may be authorized to use the information for purposes beyond the scope of CBP’s mission.”

If you are a U.S. citizen, you may be relieved to read the CBP news. website“CBP retains U.S. citizen photos for no longer than 12 hours after identity verification and only for business continuity purposes.” But even so, Buolamwini says it’s reasonable to doubt that all your data is actually deleted after those 12 hours.

When you undergo facial recognition, the technology analyzes a photo of your face and creates what’s called a “faceprint” or “face template.” This isn’t an image — it comes in the form of a series of numbers. You can think of it as metadata for your face.

The thing is, even if the airport deletes your photo, that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll delete your faceprint. And that’s the real information gold. Researchers have proven They can reconstruct an image of your real face As long as they have facial fingerprints.

I asked CBP what happens to that precious string of numbers. A CBP spokesperson did not respond to questions about whether facial prints are deleted before being released. After we published this article, a CBP spokesperson said, “CBP does not store or share templates generated during the matching process, whether with U.S. citizens or non-citizens.”

Maybe you’re in the same situation as me. Maybe you’ve already had your face scanned at an airport. Maybe you’re wondering whether declining a scan in the future would make a difference, given that your facial data is probably already stored in a database (or two) or three. (Besides the TSA, your airline might also scan your face instead of your boarding pass before letting you on the flight, although airlines explain You can choose not to take a domestic flight.)

Buolamwini’s take? It’s definitely worth declining a facial scan the next time you fly. “Every opportunity to opt out is a way to vote for your biometric rights,” she said.

We’ve already seen that when there’s enough public outcry, it can lead to the deletion of facial data. After Facebook’s facial recognition system sparked a class-action lawsuit, government investigations, and public outrage, the company eventually Deleting the facial fingerprints of more than one billion users In 2021.

“Face washing can happen and does happen,” Branwini said.

Keep in mind that the TSA claims that the rollout of facial recognition technology at airports is intended to minimize friction. If you’re not comfortable using the technology, you might consider increasing friction the next time you fly.

A version of this article originally appeared on Future Perfect communication. Register Here!

Update: July 19, 2:30 p.m. ET: This story was originally published on July 17 and has been updated with new comments from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.