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Over the past several years, the TSA has been testing facial recognition at more and more airports. These specialized scanners, called CAT-2 units, incorporate facial recognition technology by taking real-time pictures of travelers and then comparing those images against their photo IDs. As of mid-last year, they had already deployed over 400 such scanners across the country.

Facial recognition is controversial

However this new technology, which uses biometrics, is not without its naysayers and some passengers are concerned about privacy. To that end, in May of this year, a bipartisan group of 14 Senators wrote a letter to Majority Leader Schumer and Minority Leader McConnell, suggesting, in part, that facial recognition, “poses significant threats to our privacy and civil liberties, and Congress should prohibit TSA’s development and deployment of facial recognition tools until rigorous congressional oversight occurs.”

Although using facial recognition is currently voluntary, some people either don’t see the signs that say as much (they used to be kind of hidden, but they’re now a lot harder to miss) or simply don’t mind participating.

Woman might wish she had opted out

Meanwhile, a would-be passenger who was planning to fly out of Tampa International Airport (TPA) a few weeks ago might wish she had refused to participate in this new technology. WFLA-TV reports that she was arrested after the facial recognition device detected that she was trying to use someone else’s ID and boarding pass.

According to TSA officials, Brittany Lynn Anderson, a 38-year-old Tampa resident, inserted a driver’s license into the credential authentication technology machine, and a mismatch was flagged. This, in turn, led to a manual inspection by a TSA officer.

According to Anderson’s arrest report, she showed the officer an ID and a Spirit Airlines boarding pass that belonged to someone else. She then reportedly told the officer that “she was going through some rough times” and “that’s why she looks different” on the ID.

The report continued that when questioned further, Anderson allegedly told the officer that her ID was expired and she had asked a friend to purchase her ticket under someone else’s name so she could fly to Las Vegas. Upon further inspection, it turned out that the boarding pass and ID card belonged to a person who is currently in jail.

The report stated that Anderson handed the officer her expired ID. Data from the National Crime Information Center revealed that she had an active warrant out of Pennsylvania for “financial responsibilities.”

Police said Anderson was arrested on a charge of fraudulent use of personal identification information. As of this writing, she was still being held at the Falkenburg Road Jail with a $500 bond.

Would she have been caught without facial recognition?

You kind of have to wonder if Anderson would have gotten caught if she had opted out of the facial recognition. It depends on how similar she looked to the person whose ID she had. Here’s her photo, which is publicly accessible via the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office:

I mean, the TSA officer would have still compared the face on the ID to her face, and I don’t know how much “going through some rough times” would matter if the picture on the ID was someone with a more narrow nose, a more pointy chin, etc.

Meanwhile, facial recognition, when it works (it doesn’t always work accurately), apparently does what it’s supposed to do. Who woulda thunk, huh?

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