So one of the biggest travel times is coming up: the 4th of July holiday. However, if you’re flying to Orlando, you could be in for a security shock. Orlando Airport facial recognition is here.
Because this airport offers facial recognition to all international travelers. Right now, this is for passers coming from London’s airports. But by the end of 2018, this airport’s system will be fully open for business. They’re not the only ones. Because airports in New York and Atlanta are running the tests. How does it work? The facial recognition system checks your face against your passport photo. Keep in mind they already have your passport photo in a government database. They will save this images for two weeks. According to US Customs, it’s 99% accurate and will combat terrorism and other ills.
However, privacy rights groups show concern over the Orlando airport facial recognition. Some, like the ACLU (America Civil Liberties Union) say they can abuse the system and follow people beyond the airport. They also say they’re not enough clarity of how they’re going to use the data. Also, there is concern that a hacker could break in the system and compromise the ID’s of millions. I watched a CNN report on this. A customs agent, in almost a condescending and sarcasm tone, assured this is safe.
But political figures also show concern about this new piece of IT service. In fact, two US Senators, Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts) want to pause all bio metric screening. They are very concerned and want an investigation of potential privacy and cyber threats. They are not the only ones. Some say this will be a matter of quickness and convince. It may be. But Senators Markey (whose office is just down the street from our computer service shop) and Lee are right. We need to talk about safety and privacy first. Look at how good these hackers are getting and the damage they can do. Whose to say they won’t try to attack this Orlando airport facial recognition database?