A joint plan by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Florida"™s Orlando International Airport (MCO) to accelerate deployment of biometric facial recognition scans on every passenger arriving or departing on international flights at the airport is reviving privacy concerns.
Orlando would be the first US airport to fully implement the procedures, although a completion date for the process remains unspecified.
In a June 21 statement, CBP said it was teaming with the aviation authority that oversees the Orlando airport to "commit to processing all arriving and departing international travelers with facial recognition technology "¦ to advance the biometric exit mandate."
However, US Senators Ed Markey (Democrat-Massachusetts) and Mike Lee (Republican-Utah) have raised concerns with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) about the department"™s formal rulemaking regarding the biometric exit program.
DHS told the senators it plans to begin evaluating the rulemaking process by the end of 2018.
In a letter sent in May to DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielson, the senators urged DHS to implement and complete its formal rulemaking "before the end of this calendar year and before further expanding the biometric exit program," allowing for concerns to be raised by airlines and airport stakeholders, as well as privacy advocates. "It will also ensure a full vetting of this potentially sweeping program that could impact every American leaving the country by airport," the senators wrote…
