DHS unrolling facial recognition tech in airports

he Department of Homeland Security in a report released Wednesday said that it is aiming to use facial recognition technology on 97 percent of departing air passengers within the next four years.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is a part of Homeland Security, said that it believes it can implement facial recognition technology in airports across the country by 2023 by partnering with airports and airlines, which help the agency deploy cameras to capture peoples’ faces.

CBP has been implementing this program, which photographs passengers at their airport gates before they board their flights, in 2017. By 2018, the agency had unveiled the program at 15 U.S. airports.

The program, called “Biometric Exit,” cross-references the images of departing passengers with a “gallery” of images photos from visa and passport applications. The matching service allows CBP to create a record of the passenger’s departure, which they can then use to figure out if the individual has overstayed their visa or if they are in the country legally otherwise.

CBP in the documents on Wednesday said it has identified 7,000 travelers who had overstayed their visa.

The agency noted that it has also used a similar system to identify six travelers who were presenting travel documents that did not belong to them or that had been altered.

Privacy advocates have raised serious civil rights concerns around facial recognition technology, including the possibility that the information gathered by CBP could be used by other federal agencies to track and learn sensitive information about those traveling in the U.S.