The commentary in our December 4th post discussing the Department of Homeland Security’s December 2nd announcement that it would expand the use of facial recognition at U.S. airports and border checkpoints to include all American citizens has now been overtaken by events. Presently, only foreign travelers are required to submit to that form of identity verification. Following the battle with civil liberties and privacy rights groups that we predicted in our last post might happen, DHS has now confirmed it won’t be expanding recognition scans to U.S. citizens arriving into or departing from the country. The information from that December 4th post, however, is still a useful description of how Homeland Security and U.S. airlines are increasingly using facial recognition to prevent the entry of terrorists as well as catch impostors travelling on fraudulent travel documents.
Kelly Hoggan, Founder and CEO of H4 Solutions, previously served as assistant administrator for operations at the Transportation Security Administration. In that role, he was responsible for aircraft and checkpoint security operations at the nation's 400-plus commercial airports.