From the Telegraph

Facial recognition passport gates shut down

Border gates at Manchester Airport that rely on facial recognition technology had to be shut down after they failed to recognise that a couple had swapped passports.

The incident occured on 8 February and the gates were out of action for three days while immigration authorities investigated.

It is understood that the couple accidentally mixed up their passports and did not deliberately attempt to breach security. They were stopped by an official who was supervising the system and released after their immigration status was verified.

Brodie Clark, head of Border Force, the part of the UK Border Agency responsible for passport control, said: "There was no breach of security or immigration control.

"The E-gates were temporarily suspended whilst an investigation was carried out."

"The gates have now re-opened and we will continue to monitor their performance to ensure they operate safely and securely."

The gates are designed to speed up passport control, and work by comparing travellers' faces to photographs stored on a microchip embedded in every UK passport issued since 2006.

Since the first trials at Manchester Airport in 2008, they have been rolled out to other major airports including Heathrow and Gatwick. Mr Clark said that Border Force's investigation of the failure concluded that other installations were not affected.

The three-day shut down is just the latest problem to face the gates.

In December by John Vine, the Independent Chief Inspector of the UK Border Agency urged a rethink on facial recognition. His inspection found that the system often broke down and that the "effectiveness of the facial recognition gates is in danger of being compromised both by the unreliability of the technology and the frustration of staff towards their use".


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The Los Angelas Times

Shut up and be scanned
The airport security devices may be intrusive, but they're also a necessary evil.
Editorial
November 17, 2010

Would you rather pose for a nude photograph or be groped by a federal employee? To hear many fliers these days, those are the only two choices for air passengers as the Transportation Security Administration installs full-body scanners at airports and introduces a more invasive pat-down technique that some have likened to sexual molestation. We're not wild about the new methods either, but they're a necessary evil in the era of suicide bombers who board planes with chemical explosives in their underwear.

Objections to the enhanced procedures are many and varied. Some center on the scanners, which are increasingly replacing metal detectors at airport terminals, and for good reason — old-style detectors can't find the plastic or chemical bombs favored by today's terrorists. Yet the new scanners effectively peer through passengers' clothing, earning them the nickname "porno scanners" from such groups as We Won't Fly, a grass-roots consumer organization. Passengers fear that the nearly nude images will be saved and disseminated, or they are just uncomfortable with the idea of a security screener peering at their bodies. Others fret that the scanners pose a health risk. And then there are those, such as software engineer John Tyner, who refuse the scans, only to be confronted with an even worse alternative: the new TSA pat-down, which leaves no area of the body unexplored.


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