Are you the type of person who believes in conspiracy theories and doesn’t trust 90% of what the government says? Then you may not want to read about this conversation between airline passenger MacKenzie Fegan and Jet Blue Airlines.
She went to the airport and was in line to board her flight, ready with her boarding pass in hand. But it turned out she didn’t need it – all she had to do was look into camera. No one asked her for her pass. No one asked her if she wanted to opt out or in to whatever was going on, and MacKenzie went along, because that’s what we do when we’ve been trained to keep the line moving and people are waiting.
She started to think about it later, though, and sent the company a tweet.
I just boarded an international @JetBlue flight. Instead of scanning my boarding pass or handing over my passport, I looked into a camera before being allowed down the jet bridge. Did facial recognition replace boarding passes, unbeknownst to me? Did I consent to this?
— MacKenzie Fegan (@mackenzief) April 17, 2019
The ensuing thread should make each and every one of us wonder what’s ours, what can the government claim without asking, and how will things like our images be used without our consent.
You're able to opt out of this procedure, MacKenzie. Sorry if this made you feel uncomfortable.
— JetBlue Airways (@JetBlue) April 17, 2019
Follow up question. Presumably these facial recognition scanners are matching my image to something in order to verify my identity. How does @JetBlue know what I look like?
— MacKenzie Fegan (@mackenzief) April 17, 2019
The information is provided by the United States Department of Homeland Security from existing holdings.
— JetBlue Airways (@JetBlue) April 17, 2019
So to be clear, the government provided my biometric data to a privately held company? Did I consent to this? How long is my data held by @JetBlue? And even if I opt out at the scanners…you already have my information, correct?
— MacKenzie Fegan (@mackenzief) April 17, 2019
We should clarify, these photos aren't provided to us, but are securely transmitted to the Customs and Border Protection database. JetBlue does not have direct access to the photos and doesn’t store them.
— JetBlue Airways (@JetBlue) April 17, 2019
Would love more info about how my image was matched to a name on the flight manifest. I looked at the camera & a few seconds later the gate opened. Was my image, in the space of those seconds, sent to CBP, run through a database, matched to a name, and then sent back to @JetBlue?
— MacKenzie Fegan (@mackenzief) April 17, 2019
You can learn more about the process here: https://t.co/wDZYiNNhoY.
— JetBlue Airways (@JetBlue) April 17, 2019
“There is no pre-registration required.” I’ll say! This press release really doesn’t tell me anything about how it works. @EFF, can you shed some light on this? How concerned should I be?
— MacKenzie Fegan (@mackenzief) April 17, 2019
“It took her photo, comparing her picture to a preloaded photo database of all the passengers with tickets on this flight.” It sounds like opting out isn’t really an option. I can not go through the scanner, but my data will have already been accessed and loaded into a database.
— MacKenzie Fegan (@mackenzief) April 18, 2019
Not that there’s anything we can do about it, apparently, but…the more you know?
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