<story><title>JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face</title><url>https://boingboing.net/2019/04/23/in-this-twitter-exchange-jetb.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gumby</author><text>&amp;gt; It&amp;#x27;s important to know who is crossing the border, in both directions.&lt;p&gt;Why?&lt;p&gt;And if there exists an important reason to know that someone is exiting the country does that same criterion not also apply to exiting a state or city or neighborhood?&lt;p&gt;I am not being sarcastic; I am genuinely unable to come up with a reason it&amp;#x27;s important to track &lt;i&gt;who&lt;/i&gt; leaves almost any place, except in highly unusual cases (e.g. &amp;quot;OK guys, chatmasta has gone; let&amp;#x27;s get to work planning the surprise party for when he gets back&amp;quot;)</text></item><item><author>chatmasta</author><text>Is it really that useful to identify someone who has overstayed their visa &lt;i&gt;when they are leaving the country&lt;/i&gt;? Sure, you then know not to let them in next time. But it seems like a lot of effort when there are so many people overstaying their visa and &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; leaving out of the airports.&lt;p&gt;That said, even as a libertarian, privacy-conscious person, I&amp;#x27;m not sure I have a problem with exit controls like this. It&amp;#x27;s important to know who is crossing the border, in both directions.&lt;p&gt;But why do they even need the photo? Presumably the name is already on the ticket... surely they can detect overstays from names + address alone, not just photos?</text></item><item><author>crazygringo</author><text>Most relevant details, from the last link [1]:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;It took her photo, comparing her picture to a preloaded photo databased of all the passengers with tickets on this flight, and then she got a check mark, indicating she was cleared to board. The whole process took about five to six seconds.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;The Aruba experiment is expected to last somewhere between 45 and 90 days.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;We&amp;#x27;re basically capturing that picture at the boarding gate, providing it to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They&amp;#x27;re identifying the traveler,&amp;quot; Farrell said. &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s actually the U.S. government that&amp;#x27;s implementing the biometric matching system that does all the hard analysis and crunching of the data.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;A biometric exit system to track non-U.S. citizens using their faces or fingerprints has long been a congressional mandate, particularly after 9&amp;#x2F;11, to improve border security and identify people who&amp;#x27;ve overstayed their visas.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Crockford says people don&amp;#x27;t know how CBP might share that data with local police. CBP insists it&amp;#x27;ll discard photos taken of citizens, and only keep a database of non-citizens.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Customs and Border Protection has been piloting similar biometric tests at airports in Atlanta, New York and the D.C. area. And, according to a customs official, the goal is to deploy facial recognition tech widely by early next year.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I guess it must be comparing with their passport photo? (Or visa photo, for foreigners?) It doesn&amp;#x27;t seem much different from the way you&amp;#x27;re already required to show your physical passport and they check your photo manually. It&amp;#x27;s also always been pretty normal to have your photo taken by countries when passing through passport control. So I don&amp;#x27;t really see what the problem would be here?&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wbur.org&amp;#x2F;bostonomix&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;jetblue-facial-recognition-pilot&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wbur.org&amp;#x2F;bostonomix&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;jetblue-facial-re...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>URSpider94</author><text>Its worth pointing out that the US is literally the only country in the world that I have visited, in my recollection, that does not have passport control upon exiting the country.</text></comment>
<story><title>JetBlue explains to a passenger how it got a photo of her face</title><url>https://boingboing.net/2019/04/23/in-this-twitter-exchange-jetb.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>gumby</author><text>&amp;gt; It&amp;#x27;s important to know who is crossing the border, in both directions.&lt;p&gt;Why?&lt;p&gt;And if there exists an important reason to know that someone is exiting the country does that same criterion not also apply to exiting a state or city or neighborhood?&lt;p&gt;I am not being sarcastic; I am genuinely unable to come up with a reason it&amp;#x27;s important to track &lt;i&gt;who&lt;/i&gt; leaves almost any place, except in highly unusual cases (e.g. &amp;quot;OK guys, chatmasta has gone; let&amp;#x27;s get to work planning the surprise party for when he gets back&amp;quot;)</text></item><item><author>chatmasta</author><text>Is it really that useful to identify someone who has overstayed their visa &lt;i&gt;when they are leaving the country&lt;/i&gt;? Sure, you then know not to let them in next time. But it seems like a lot of effort when there are so many people overstaying their visa and &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; leaving out of the airports.&lt;p&gt;That said, even as a libertarian, privacy-conscious person, I&amp;#x27;m not sure I have a problem with exit controls like this. It&amp;#x27;s important to know who is crossing the border, in both directions.&lt;p&gt;But why do they even need the photo? Presumably the name is already on the ticket... surely they can detect overstays from names + address alone, not just photos?</text></item><item><author>crazygringo</author><text>Most relevant details, from the last link [1]:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;It took her photo, comparing her picture to a preloaded photo databased of all the passengers with tickets on this flight, and then she got a check mark, indicating she was cleared to board. The whole process took about five to six seconds.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;The Aruba experiment is expected to last somewhere between 45 and 90 days.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;&amp;quot;We&amp;#x27;re basically capturing that picture at the boarding gate, providing it to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. They&amp;#x27;re identifying the traveler,&amp;quot; Farrell said. &amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s actually the U.S. government that&amp;#x27;s implementing the biometric matching system that does all the hard analysis and crunching of the data.&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;A biometric exit system to track non-U.S. citizens using their faces or fingerprints has long been a congressional mandate, particularly after 9&amp;#x2F;11, to improve border security and identify people who&amp;#x27;ve overstayed their visas.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Crockford says people don&amp;#x27;t know how CBP might share that data with local police. CBP insists it&amp;#x27;ll discard photos taken of citizens, and only keep a database of non-citizens.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Customs and Border Protection has been piloting similar biometric tests at airports in Atlanta, New York and the D.C. area. And, according to a customs official, the goal is to deploy facial recognition tech widely by early next year.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I guess it must be comparing with their passport photo? (Or visa photo, for foreigners?) It doesn&amp;#x27;t seem much different from the way you&amp;#x27;re already required to show your physical passport and they check your photo manually. It&amp;#x27;s also always been pretty normal to have your photo taken by countries when passing through passport control. So I don&amp;#x27;t really see what the problem would be here?&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wbur.org&amp;#x2F;bostonomix&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;jetblue-facial-recognition-pilot&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wbur.org&amp;#x2F;bostonomix&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;06&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;jetblue-facial-re...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>unreal37</author><text>Most countries of the world have maximum visit lengths as part of a visitor visa.&lt;p&gt;And those maximum visit lengths are counted on an annual basis. So you can only visit the US 179 days out of 365.&lt;p&gt;So they need to know when you came in and when you left. It&amp;#x27;s not good enough to just leave and not tell anyone.</text></comment>