The debate continues on whether the Port of Seattle should allow or pay for continued or expanded use of facial recognition at Sea-Tac Airport (SEA) and the Seattle cruise port. Yesterday Port of Seattle staff and a subcommittee of the Port Commission met with an advisory committee on biometrics appointed by the Port Commission. Jennifer […]
The Identity Project is one of thirty organizations that have issued a joint open letter calling on the Port of Seattle Commission to reverse its decision to purchase and deploy facial recognition systems, in collaboration and sharing data with US Customs and Border Protection (and through CBP with an unknown variety of other Federal, foreign, […]
[CBP sign at biometric boarding gate at Newark Liberty International Airport. Note the absence of the OMB Control Number and other notices required by the Paperwork Reduction Act.] Repudiating the principles for assessment of biometric identification of travelers it adopted in December 2019, and effectively mooting the policy development process it had begun since then, […]
This week the Port of Seattle Commission — a special-purpose government body elected by the voters of King County, Washington, to administer both the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and the maritime Port of Seattle — became the first airport operating or oversight body in the US to publicly discuss any policy for use of facial recognition […]
We’ll be in Seattle on December 10, 2019, to give public comments (see our detailed written testimony submitted in advance) at a meeting of the Port of Seattle Commission concerning a proposed resolution on use of facial recognition by airlines at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA). This will be the first time that any operator […]
[Arrows indicate populations of states where abortion is, or is likely to become, illegal, and directions and distances to the nearest states where abortion is legal. Note that some of the routes shown are more likely to be followed than others, since abortion is more or less heavily restricted in some states where it is […]
For several years the Identity Project has been engaging with the Port of Seattle over its expansion of automated facial recognition to track travelers at Sea-Tac Airport. Today we made yet another (virtual) visit to the Port of Seattle Commission to give the following comments (PDF) on the latest test of the new International Arrivals […]
Last December we called attention to plans by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to require mug shots of all travelers entering or leaving the US by air or sea, including US citizens. Within days, CBP issued a press release falsely accusing us of incorrectly reporting the official CBP notice of its plans, and saying […]
US Customs and Border Ptotection (CBP) has launched an entire new subdomain of its website, biometrics.cbp.gov, devoted to propaganda intended to persuade the traveling public to submit to, and airlines and airport operating authorities to collaborate in, the use of facial recognition and other biometrics to identify and track travelers. There’s nothing in CBP’s happy-talk […]
Today the City Council of Portland, Oregon, voted unanimously to ban the use of facial recognition technology by City agencies or by private entities in places of public accommodation within the City limits, including at the Portland International Airport (PDX), effective immediately. Many local and national organizations and individuals testified eloquently in favor of these […]