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Privacy and civil liberties board studies facial recognition pilot at Las Vegas airport

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September 30, 2019

The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, a five-member government board created after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attack, has completed a review of a 30-day pilot test of facial recognition using biometric technology at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas, according to a Las Vegas Review-Journal report.

The board is in charge of ensuring that new technology helps prevent terrorism while balancing the need to protect civil liberties and privacy.

The Transportation Security Administration assessed its ability to compare passenger photos taken at the checkpoint against identity documents. The TSA collected passengers' photos and biographic information from their identity documents and retained it temporarily for technical analysis.

Adam Klein, board chairman, said the board is investigating issues such as the security motivation for using the technology, the types of data being collected, how the data is analyzed and stored and other possible uses for the data.

Passengers were still subject to manual identity and travel document verification in addition to the biometric matching.