This issue came up recently in the Global Entry posts. The US has been scanning faces of arriving passengers for years at some airports. If you are a US citizen, you can legally opt out. I’m not sure what the “secondary check” would involve, but H and I were in a very long line because of his face scan so it might not be a longer process.
I hadn’t realized though that several US carriers are scanning faces instead of boarding passes for domestic flights. Again, you can opt out but they are likely to make it less convenient for you as a way of getting people to comply.
This is an interesting article with some good info on how facial recognition is being used and how it will increasingly be used. The above is the article if you don’t have WaPo access. Worth a read in its entirety, IMO, but here are some bits.
“Historically, America hasn’t required people departing its shores to be checked by customs officers. After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress mandated additional biometric checks on exits – but only for foreigners, not Americans. Then in 2017, President Donald Trump issued an executive order expediting the development of a biometric entry-exit program at airports, including facial recognition at the top 20 airports by 2021.”
"What has civil libertarians worried is that airports are face-scanning everyone, including U.S. citizens. It’s true that airports are already places you have to present identification. But having a computer do that opens the potential for abuse the Constitution is supposed to protect us from. People in America can’t be searched unless they’re suspected of crimes. And anonymity is a pillar of free speech.
“If we give in to this, we are allowing the government and the airlines to build up giant face recognition databases of all of us,” says Jennifer Lynch, the surveillance litigation director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation."
It goes on saying this technology will soon be used in domestic flights as well. Slippery slope re: privacy and civil liberty concerns, IMO.
I frequently go through immigration in a couple foreign countries that have used facial scanning for the last few years. It makes for a very fast exit process, but each time I have that “1984” feeling.
I have kept my iPhone 6s because it has the fingerprint scan and the headphone jack hole. I shall miss these items if and when my aging phone decides to quit on me. It’s currently about 3.5 years old.