Since 2018, Delta has been working with CBP to offer international passengers flying from Atlanta the option of checking in and doing security using facial recognition instead of conventional documents. In 2019, the airline used facial recognition on board for 86% of international flights departing from Atlanta; This rate has dropped during the pandemic due to the revised boarding process, but is now more than 60% of international flights and growing. Delta recently expanded the program to allow domestic passengers with TSA Precheck departing from Atlanta to proceed from check-in using only their faces for identification. The airline built the new system in partnership with the Transportation Security Administration, CBP, and travel security company Pangiam, and it plans to roll out the system at other airports, starting start from Detroit.
Ranjan Goswami, Delta’s senior vice president of customer experience, said the new process in Atlanta makes travel more convenient for passengers and is a “blueprint for the future.” The program is voluntary and Delta does not save or store any biometric data, Goswami said.
Shaun Moore, a Pangiam executive who joined the company when it acquired facial recognition startup Trueface earlier this year, says the debate over police use of the technology could overshadows its value in other areas. “It paints a somewhat unfair industry,” he said. “While the regulatory discussion for law enforcement uses has not improved, we have focused on areas where there is less concern, less risk, and people are feeling comfortable.”
Moore said Pangiam does not provide its technology to law enforcement and that he favors regulating such uses. The Air Force also uses Pangiam’s technology to speed up identity checks at base entrances, and cryptocurrency exchange Everest uses the technology to register new customers.
Financial firms are also showing interest in facial recognition to speed up identity checks. Incode, a San Francisco-based identity verification startup, says its facial recognition will check more than 140 million identities by 2021, nearly four times more than the previous three years combined. . The company’s clients include HSBC and Citigroup, and it recently raised $220 million in funding from investors including JP Morgan.
Caitlin Seeley George, campaign director at the nonprofit Fight for the Future, sees the spread of facial recognition in airports and other areas of everyday life as concerning. “We need to ban all facial recognition, because the harms of this technology far outweigh any benefits,” she said.
George considers seemingly benign or careful uses of technology dangerous because they help normalize the collection of personal and biometric data that can be hacked or exploited. “The more places people see it, the more comfortable people feel,” she said. “When we do things for convenience, we may not think about all the consequences.”
At the same time, George is optimistic about containing facial recognition. She points to Facebook’s decision to shut down its tagging system, the spread of local bans, and legislation adopted by a group of Democratic lawmakers and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont). applies to both houses of Congress this year. federal agencies. Similar bills were introduced in 2020 but did not go to a vote.
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