Well, you knew it was coming, the Orwellian, Brave New World mixed in with a little Minority Report and Black Mirror has now produced additional privacy concerns via the unconstitutional and lawless TSA. Terminal One at JFK Airport in New York has introduced facial recognition boarding. What could go wrong?
A biometric self-boarding gate has officially been launched at John F. Kennedy International Airport’s Terminal 1, officials said Tuesday.
Lufthansa has deployed the paperless, high-tech boarding process – which uses facial recognition technology to verify travelers with a photo capture — at its largest US gateway at the Queens airport.
Air France, Japan Airlines and Norwegian Airlines are expected to follow suit at the terminal, officials said.
Isn’t it enough that the federal government has federalized the TSA and violated the Constitution and the rights of the people it is supposed to serve millions of times every day? No, it isn’t. Now, they have to track you and don’t think this isn’t about tracking and control.
“It’s become crucial for airports and airlines to adopt biometric capabilities along the processes which require interaction with the traveler, therefore enhancing and scaling operational capacity for growing quicker within their existing footprint,” said Miguel Leitmann, the CEO and founder of Vision-Box, which brought the new boarding method to Terminal 1 through a partnership with US Customs and Border Protection and Terminal One Group Association.
This is the same Customs and Border Patrol engaging in unconstitutional search and seizure not only at the border, but even 100 miles inside the US border.
When a passenger approaches a self-boarding gate, a biometric-enabled camera integrated in the gate captures the passenger’s facial image.
That image is then securely sent to US Customs’ Traveler Verification Service, which “conducts a matching process with the stored digital facial token captured at the initial immigration process or from the US passport,” according to Vision-Box.
“Within seconds the system reconciles the passenger identity and his eligibility to enter the flight. The positive match of both verification’s triggers to open the eGate doors and the passenger can board the airplane.”
JetBlue attempted this last year at its JFK Terminal 5.
I understand the arguments that it’s easier and cooler and neater and faster, as well as “safer,” but the reality is that this is nothing more than a control mechanism, and whoever controls you has the upper hand.
Or as founding father Benjamin Franklin famously noted:
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”
Americans are giving up their liberties left and right in the name of safety and security. They are actually giving up the very liberties that ensure their safety and security against a tyrannical government.
The question I have is: Where are all those privacy advocates protesting this invasive attack on Americans’ liberties? Crickets.
