Remember that dystopian future that movies have promised for decades now? It’s here, at least in part, at American Airline’s boarding gates at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The airline has started using facial recognition to let passengers board their aircraft faster, and presumably without having to talk to anyone. That’s according to local news station CBS 11, who also reports that American Airlines is saying the new system is more secure than the traditional boarding pass. Instead of a traditional boarding pass, passengers flying with American Airlines to international destinations can decide to use the facial recognition system instead. It works like this: The boarding gate scans their face, then sends that scan to a US Customs and Border Protection-maintained cloud database where it is matched to their passport photo. If matched correctly, they can be boarded and on the plane within seconds. American Airlines says it doesn’t store the pictures of faces, but makes no mention if CBP does once that image is uploaded to the online database. With facial recognition on the rise, questions keep coming up about the privacy implications of using the tech. The thing is, I’m not so sure the average air traveler will care if it gets them to their flight a few minutes faster. What do you think? How do you feel about facial recognition being used in airports? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.
American Airlines has reportedly started offering facial recognition technology to speed boarding at its Dallas-Fort Worth International gates. Images are sent to a database run by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) force for matching with passport pictures. The airline said it didn’t store the picture, and that the technology was more secure than a traditional boarding pass. It's not known whether the CBP stores the image. Facial recognition is also used at Singapore, Heathrow and Los Angeles International airports.