An Alaska Airlines flight takes off from Missoula International Airport on December 20, 2020.
New facial recognition technology recently unrolled at five Montana airports needs more vetting to ensure privacy for passengers, efficacy in decreasing wait times, and benefits in increasing security, said a letter this week signed by Republican U.S. Sen. Steve Daines.
The letter, directed to the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, was signed by 11 other senators, led by U.S. Sen. Jeffrey Merkeley, an Oregon Democrat.
“We urge you to conduct thorough oversight of the Transportation Security Administration’s use of facial recognition technology for passenger verification from both an authorities and privacy perspective,” the letter said. “This technology will soon be in use at hundreds of major and mid-size airports without an independent evaluation of the technology’s precision or an audit of whether there are sufficient safeguards in place to protect passenger privacy.”
In an interview and earlier news release, however, a spokesperson for the TSA who oversees airports in the West said the new technology is an improvement for security, and the agency implemented it this fall at five Montana airports.
It’s in use at the Bozeman-Yellowstone International Airport; Billings International Airport; Great Falls International Airport; Helena Regional Airport; and Missoula International Airport, according to TSA. TSA said the rollout in Montana started in September.
TSA spokesperson Lorie Dankers said the new system, an updated version of Credential Authentication Technology, or CAT-2, is in place to enhance security and speed up the identity verification process at the airport.
The new system takes pictures of passengers, but it does not store them, and passengers are free to opt out of the scan without retribution, Dankers said.
“There is signage posted that tells travelers it’s optional,” Dankers said in an interview.
The letter from senators, however, urged a closer review of the system, especially given plans for its expansion — and potential consequences if its use becomes required.
“Despite promising lawmakers and the public that this technology is not mandatory, TSA has stated its intent to expand this technology beyond the security checkpoint and make it mandatory in the future,” the letter said. “In April 2023, TSA Administrator (David) Pekoske admitted at the South by Southwest Conference that ‘We will get to the point where we will require biometrics across the board.’
“If that happens, this program could become one of the largest federal surveillance databases overnight without authorization from Congress.”
This fall, the Missoula Current reported a significant increase in traffic at the Missoula airport. The Current said the airport could hit one million passengers by the end of the year, surpassing its 2019 record, and September was the fifth straight month it had exceeded 2019 records.
In Bozeman, airport President and CEO Brian Sprenger earlier told the Daily Montanan his airport was expected to handle 65% more passengers this year than it did in 2019.
Friday, Sprenger said the airport has not received passenger complaints about the new system and use of facial recognition technology.
However, he said technology always opens the door to privacy concerns, but airports have to address how to increase efficiency and security.
“When you’re using any kind of new technology, I think the ideas behind it are increasing safety and also increasing efficiency,” Sprenger said. “But when you get into the questions of: Does that impact personal privacy? – that’s the battle that I think is there.”
He said he believes that’s one reason Daines is asking questions and “wants to make sure there’s not an overreach.”
On the other hand, the already busy airports could be even more bogged down.
“Without the technology, the lines become longer,” Sprenger said.
Dankers said the original CAT system started in 2020.
Coincidentally, she said, COVID-19 hit, people didn’t want to have cross contamination, and the new scanner allowed a “touchless” way for people to present their IDs to officers, so the pandemic accelerated the deployment.
“It was a great solution,” Dankers said.
The original system was designed to scan a passenger’s photo ID, confirm the person is ticketed for travel, and note the type of screening they’re eligible for, such as TSA Pre-Check. The TSA officer visually verified the identity of the passenger.
The new system, the CAT-2, adds facial recognition technology. A camera on a tablet takes a “real-time” photo of the passenger, and the CAT-2 compares it to the traveler’s photo ID with facial recognition technology.
If the system confirms the passenger, the person can keep going through security, and the verification takes place “all without exchanging a boarding pass,” according to TSA.
Dankers said before either of the CAT systems, security officers were frustrated because passenger verifications took so much time. Different airlines put information in different places on a boarding pass, for instance, and it was a struggle at times to confirm necessary details.
“It was a lot of information to search for in a short period of time,” Dankers said.
The original CAT put the information from a boarding pass on a screen and standardized it, which the officers liked, Dankers said. The CAT-2 takes it one step further by having the technology match the person — their “real-time” picture — to the ID.
“They (officers) can do all of that manually, but at TSA, anytime you can use technology to supplement the efforts of our workforce, it strengthens our processes,” Dankers said.
She said the system has no capacity to store photos at all. She said it does not have a hard drive, and the photos are not transmitted elsewhere.
However, the U.S. government has a history of spying on citizens, and to people who are skeptical despite TSA’s reassurances, Dankers said they are free to opt out. She said the officers do not make the opt-out offer verbally, but the option is posted.
She said whether the signage is adequate notice to people who may have concerns about privacy is not for her to decide, although she said privacy concerns exist across the country.
“The reality is across the country, there are people who are very protective of their privacy,” Dankers said. “It’s not unique to Montana.”
In their letter, Daines and the other senators request the Department of Homeland Security conduct specific evaluations of the new technology, including how well it fares with disguises or false documents compared to other verification methods; whether it has meaningfully reduced screening delays; the number of times it has prevented terrorists or people on the no-fly list from boarding; and the prevalence of errors it makes, among other data.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to an email Friday about the requests, and TSA could not provide data Friday about the system in response to the specific inquiries in the letter.
However, Dankers pointed to results of a U.S. Travel Association and Ipsos survey that show four-of-five American travelers support biometrics use at airport security and that 79% of air travelers back the use of biometrics at TSA checkpoints for identity verification.
The survey said 1,255 people were interviewed and cited a margin of error of -/+ 3.1%. The survey also said 60% of travelers trust TSA with their biometric data.
An earlier letter signed by Daines that raised similar concerns said TSA had not produced evidence that more false identification documents had been discovered since the implementation of facial recognition. It said reports of passengers bypassing security checkpoints “suggest that TSA should focus on the fundamentals, not expanding its facial recognition program.”
In the letter this week, the senators also said the TSA has reported a 3% false negative match rate, or more than 68,000 discrepancies among 2.3 million daily travelers. They also said although the current system is optional, it’s “confusing and intimidating” to opt out, and officers are inconsistently trained on how to respond to the requests.
“Our offices have received numerous anecdotal reports of Transportation Security Officers becoming belligerent when a traveler asks to opt out, or simply being unaware of that right,” said the letter, dated Nov. 20.
In May 2024, Daines was among a group of senators who sent the separate letter to the U.S. Senate majority and minority leaders, this one urging them to restrict the use of facial recognition technology in the Federal Aviation Administration authorization.
“This technology 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,” the letter said.
It also warned of the potential for government overreach given the goal of TSA to require its use in the future. The restriction requested was not included in the reauthorization.
“The potential for misuse of this technology extends far beyond airport security checkpoints,” the letter said. “Once Americans become accustomed to government facial recognition scans, it will be that much easier for the government to scan citizens’ faces everywhere, from entry into government buildings, to passive surveillance on public property like parks, schools, and sidewalks.”
Daines TSA May 2024
Daines TSA Nov. 2024