tl;dr: new tech means new surveillance and new risk.

I’ve left and re-entered the US 3 times in the past 5 weeks. There are many similarities and a few differences to traveling in the Covid era, but one of them is how border control works.

I’ve been a Global Entry member for a while now and the old system required a passport scan, a fingerprint confirmation, and a photo.

Now, there’s no fingerprint scan. Just a passport scan and a facial recognition camera that confirms identity.

Whereas the old method had a print out of your face on the receipt you handed to CBP, this one doesn’t. Your identity was already confirmed by the computer.

I actually noticed the same thing when I entered the UK. Admittedly, the system is MUCH faster and I was through immigration in a matter of seconds, but the fact that the UK and the US now both have a facial recognition profile of me (which they may be sharing) caught my attention.

On the one hand, it adds risk to me (and to all of us) as there is a centralized “honeypot” of biometric data now that is potentially hackable.

Soon, the Mission Impossible Mask may be a reality

One way or another, if feels like we are lining up for a private or a public Biometric Equifax.