When you show your ID to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) worker at airport security, there’s a good chance a camera will automatically photograph your face to match it with the picture on your ID. But travelers trade away their privacy in exchange for a little less time at security, tech privacy activists say. The TSA says opting out of the face scan is easy, but one TikTok creator has shown that’s not always the case. 

YK Hong posted a series of TikTok videos showing that, after opting out, she was forced to deal with confrontational TSA agents who said she in fact could not bypass the facial scans. The TSA agents grew defensive when she pushed back, then demanded to know why she didn’t want to submit to the scans. “Sweet Jesus!” one New York TSA agent said in frustration.

Hong, a self-described tech justice activist, says she’s been opting out of the scans for “six or seven years,” as long as the TSA has been experimenting with facial recognition.

Other travelers have noted that the TSA camera is pointed at the line and they couldn’t avoid having their face scanned. Another told the agent they were opting out, but was then informed that their photo had already been taken. 

The TSA seems to suggest that passengers do opt in. “A traveler may voluntarily agree to use their face to verify their identity during the screening process by presenting their physical identification or passport,” reads the agency’s facial recognition page.

Facial recognition cameras typically capture hundreds of points on your face, then turn the points into numbers, forming a unique digital representation. Critics like Hong say that when someone captures that representation without permission, they’re taking something that belongs to you. And you’ve relinquished control over the ways in which your facial image might be used in the future.

“Discriminatory facial recognition technologies [are] only one line of code away from mass surveillance,” says Joy Buolamwini of the Algorithmic Justice League (AJL) in a recent panel discussion. She says the TSA’s program “normalizes surveillance culture.” The AJL launched its #InPlaneSight campaign in the summer of 2023 to raise awareness about the right for U.S. citizens to opt out of facial recognition scans at U.S. airports. In March, Buolamwini testified before Congress on the matter.

The TSA says it uses the face scan data only for airport security, and that other government agencies nor law enforcement has access to it. It says the biometric technology it uses “transforms passenger photos to templates that cannot be reverse-engineered to recreate the original image.” The agency does not say exactly how long it will retain the facial data, only that it retains the data “for as long as is necessary to fulfill the specified purpose(s) of biometric technology pilots.”

In May, a bipartisan group of senators sent a letter calling for a pause to the TSA’s program. “This technology poses significant threats to our privacy and civil liberties,” the senators wrote, “and Congress should prohibit TSA’s development and deployment of facial recognition tools until rigorous congressional oversight occurs.” But their concerns were brushed aside and the TSA’s pilot has continued. 

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