Orlando’s airport will require face scans on all international travelers

By Erin Winick

June 25, 2018

Orlando International Airport will be the first US airport to process all international travelers using face recognition.

The news: US Customs and Border Patrol announced last week that all arriving and departing international passengers to Orlando’s main airport will be scanned by a face recognition system. The agency is testing a biometric exit system at 13 major US airports, but this is the first one to go all in on the technology.

By the numbers: The verification process takes less than two seconds. The Greater Orlando Aviation Authority claims that boarding time improved by 15 minutes during testing.

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Why it matters: There are no formal rules yet on how the government will handle this data and how it will be used. There are, however, plenty of worries that it may violate people’s privacy. The Orlando airport has a growing amount of international traffic, with nearly six million non-domestic passengers last year, meaning a lot of data will be collected before this is fully figured out.

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