TSA now wants to scan your face at security (opens in new tab)

They now get a considerably more centralized program. Instead of working through 50+ DMVs and whatever equipment the person's branch happened to use to take the photo however long ago it was taken and whatever standard resolution they get the result in, TSA can now use homeland security kinds of money to buy whatever cameras it wants, and collect a stream of photos of people who they have positively identified. And since they also now have a known high-quality image and identification at a specific place and time, they can correlate that with lower-quality images taken elsewhere in the airport to create training datasets to make automated identification from surveillance cameras more robust.

Do they already do this elsewhere, e.g. with Global Entry? Sure.

These comments always shock me. The way people will just let their rights slip through their fingers with glee so they can get an intellectual "gotcha".

It's very hard for me to imagine not being outraged that the government is tracking you even more because you want to seem smarter than randos on the Internet.

Scale matters for things like this. When it comes to things that potentially expose people to criminal liability or other government penalties, automating anything is a gateway to abuse, present or future.

... and now they have a picture of you everytime you fly.

Everything you say (and present) can and will be used against you.

Your exact appearance will be scrutinized possibly even years later in a way that no TSA agent could possibly remember, if someone decides to accuse you of a crime that involves transport like trafficking. "On such a such a date, our expert witness looked at the TSA photograph and nervousness detection program and the AI detected they were anxious and possibly intoxicated when passing through TSA. Your honor, this nervous and intoxicated behavior was detected by TSA computers on X Y Z and A B C dates as well. Our analysis shows traffickers disproportionately exhibited this behavior, which was listed as supporting evidence on the search warrant affadivit 6 months ago after which a roach was discovered in the defendants ash tray..."

Airports already deploy facial recognition. The Global Entry program scans your face upon arrival. And sometimes flights scan your face as a boarding pass for entry.

Yeah I figured they were scanning faces already.

In Europe the automated face scan is optional. You can also choose to go to a real customs agent.

And the fact that privacy is currently a gone thing in air travel doesn't mean we should keep adding tech that cements the status quo, we could also move back to more privacy-conscious options of course. It's badly needed IMO.

It doesn’t reduce the time to enter the country anymore than blocking your front door unless you pay a toll reduces your time to exit the building.

Could you please clarify why automatic face scan is considered as a privacy intrusion compared to face check by border control officer?

This isn't international travel.

Why?

TSA already punishes travelers who try to opt out of body scanning. In addition to subjecting them to intrusive patdowns, often in public (for those who don't want to risk a special "private screening") they will typically suspend scanning temporarily and make the opt-out people wait as they let others go ahead through a simple metal detector. This may be an easy way for bad actors to help their accomplices avoid body scans.