Senate Luddites Want to Limit Airport Biometrics – Even If That Means Longer Lines

by Robert McGarvey

Senators Jeff Merkley and John Kennedy want to make you wait in very long lines at airports.  That is a fact and the senators are seeking to amend the FAA reauthorization bill to include language to severely curtail use of biometrics to identify people at airports.

What Merkley-Kennedy ask for is to block expansion of biometrics at airports until 2027 and to make clear that passengers can opt out of it.  

That would call halt on the TSA plan to expand biometrics from today’s 25 airports to 430.  

Just what technology is involved? Per the New York Times, “Using kiosks with iPads affixed to them, passengers have their photographs taken and matched to an image from an ID, eliminating the need for workers to make such a match with their eyes.”

For his part, Merkley apparently believes it’s a god given right in the US not to have one’s photo taken without permission.  He is obviously oblivious to the many, many cameras built into people’s doorbells, for instance, but this is a guy who as a state legislator in Oregon fiercely opposed red light cameras

“The TSA program is a precursor to a full-blown national surveillance state,” said Senator Merkley. “Nothing could be more damaging to our national values of privacy and freedom. No government should be trusted with this power.”

Note: I did not make up that quote. It’s the Senator’s.

As for Senator Kennedy, he fumes that “Unless Congress reins in this program through our amendment to the F.A.A. reauthorization bill, I fear bureaucrats will start seizing and hoarding the biometrics of millions of travelers without explicit permission.”

Kennedy added: “Every day, TSA scans thousands of Americans’ faces without their permission and without making it clear that travelers can opt out of the invasive screening.”

I have to admit that when I’ve been aware of biometrics in use at airports I’ve applauded it.  Things just seemed to go faster, more smoothly.

I’m not alone. Far from it. Over half of us in the US use biometrics daily.  I know I use it multiple times a day, usually on an iPhone and in lieu of typing in a password. I much prefer to use biometrics and admit to scratching my head when I see the luddite idiocy from Kennedy and Merkley.

I’m not alone.

The U.S. Travel Association, a trade association involving many of the industry’s biggest players, bluntly says of the Merkley-Kennedy language: “According to a U.S. Travel Association analysis, the proposed amendment could result in travelers waiting an additional 120 million hours in TSA lines each year by significantly slowing both TSA PreCheck and standard screening lanes.”

The U. S. Travel Association adds: “Further, the senators’ proposal threatens national security by effectively banning TSA’s use of facial recognition technology for non-PreCheck passengers–which mal-intentioned individuals could exploit.”

Alexa C. Lopez, a T.S.A. spokeswoman, told the New York Times that photographs were not stored or saved after a positive ID match, “except in a limited testing environment for evaluation of the effectiveness of the technology.”

Besides, if TSA wants to hold my photo, have at it. Dozens of pix of me are readily found on the Internet. That privacy genie long ago fled the bottle.

“This proposed legislation threatens to turn America’s airports into the equivalent of college bars where fake IDs rule the day,” said Geoff Freeman, CEO of U. S. Travel Association. “TSA, to its credit, is innovating with the latest security technology and members of Congress are threatening to stand in its way–at the expense of the travel experience.”

At a glance, the Merkley-Kennedy language did not survive in the Senate’s latest version of the FAA bill. But don’t assume it’s RIP. Know that this Kennedy-Merkley language has been floating around the District for six months and it isn’t going away.  Like the Terminator it will come back even when you thought it was killed off, mainly because Kennedy and Merkley seem sincerely to believe the luddite bilge they spew.

Also know that over 18 million of us pay to use biometrics associated with Clear and that’s because they believe it speeds their way through the 55+ plus airports where it’s in use.

The winner in this battle already is known. But luddites got to do what luddites do, even when it is a hopeless mission.  
Write your senator and tell him/her to ignore Kennedy-Merkley.