Travelers Can Avoid Airlines Using Facial Recognition With A New Website

AirlinePrivacy.com, which shows users what airlines are currently implementing facial recognition technology and which ones are not.

Airlines are starting to use facial recognition technologies

The page also allows customers to directly book flights with airlines that do not use the technology to identify passengers before boarding, something that has raised much concern about privacy and data security.

A dystopia has become a reality?

According to the group, we are currently living in a dystopia reality where our biometric information is captured and stored at boarding gates. Although passengers are able to opt-out of facial recognition, it is not clear how they can do that and whether they will be put on the watchlist.

Additionally, it remains a mystery how long airlines will store our facial data. One thing that we do know is that this information is sometimes shared with federal authorities, which keep biographic records for 75 years for non-US-residents.

Moreover, some evidence shows that biometric systems do not work effectively and accurately. A study conducted by MIT Media Lab pointed out that racial and gender biases were identified in facial analysis software. As a result, San Francisco already banned it completely.

Choose airlines that do not use facial recognition

AirlinePrivacy.com helps passengers to book flights directly with privacy-conscious airlines that decide not to use facial recognition technologies when boarding.

Biometric boarding programs are not an official security requirement. While British Airways, Lufthansa and American Airlines have all incorporated the technology,  they do not make it clear how they utilize the data.

The website not only allows bookings with airlines with no facial recognition systems but also sparks an online campaign #Getouttamyface on Twitter to put a pressure on airlines to reveal the reasons and the ways they utilize biometric information of their customers.