Ahead of summer travel likely heating up, a journey through security at Logan International Airport in Boston may look a little different for travelers.
TSA is testing new technology to enhance security, but it's also raising some privacy concerns. Logan is one of 16 airports testing facial recognition cameras.
So, how does it work?
TSA says passengers walk up to the camera, scan their ID and a TSA agent compares that image with your information. It's meant to help officers make sure travelers are who they say they are.
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Airports in cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Las Vegas, San Jose and Salt Lake City are also participating in the pilot — which is voluntary and accurate, according to TSA.
This type of technology has been criticized before — not just because of what's potentially done with the information it gathers — but because it has been inaccurate in the past for being biased against some groups of people when cameras fail to recognize certain types of faces.
"You also want to guarantee that people can decide not to use it and make it opt in, so that people actually decide to use if there instead of having to opt out," Jeramie Scott with the Electronic Privacy Information Center said. "And the people who decide not to use it, make sure that they're not impacted negatively with extremely long lines or with a wait process to get through a security checkpoint."
Not every traveler going through one of the participating airports would necessarily encounter this pilot program, since it's not at every TSA checkpoint.
