The next time you catch a flight out of the country, your face may end up in a government database.
Airport security has beefed up in the last few years. So it’s surprising that the use of facial recognition technology is only now becoming common in U.S. airports, but that’s exactly what’s happening.
News has come out recently that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is looking to expand the use of this kind of technology until it’s in every airport throughout the country.
It makes sense. Especially when you consider that 15 airports throughout the country already use some form of the technology.
With the existing technology, a person’s face is photographed as they approach their departure gate. It’s then compared to on-file information for visas and passports. In these instances, the goal is to make sure there is a match and that people in the country on travel visas aren’t overstaying.
The system has already logged 2 million passengers over the course of 15,000 flights. Seven thousand of those passengers were classified as overstays. And this is only since 2017.
With those kinds of numbers, you can see why CBP would want to expand the program to cover more airports.
But that’s hardly all this technology is capable of.
The Changing Face of Airport Security
According to numbers from the U.S. Department of Transportation, U.S. airlines carried nearly 850 million people in 2017. 108 million of those were international travelers. 2017 was also the year that a man named Esteban Santiago opened fire in an airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Five people were killed and six others injured by the shooter in that incident.
That same year, a Canadian man named Amor Ftouhi stabbed an airport officer in what was later deemed to be a terrorist attack. This happened outside of the TSA checkpoint, so Ftouhi didn’t have to go through security with the knife he carried. The officer survived, but the investigation determined that Ftouhi wanted to take the officer’s gun and begin shooting after he stabbed the officer.
These are just two of the most serious crimes committed at airports in recent times, but they’re hardly the end of the story. Nor is this a uniquely American problem.
2017 also saw an incident at Orly Airport south of France. There, a man armed with a pistol attempted to take a weapon from a soldier. He was gunned down by two other soldiers working security, marking the only casualty in that incident.
In 2016, at Atatürk Airport in Istanbul, Turkey, gunmen armed with automatic weapons and explosive belts attacked. Nearly 50 people, including three perpetrators, died in that incident and over 200 were injured.
As you can see, airports are increasingly becoming targets for criminals and terrorists. It’s a problem that can be solved, in part, by facial recognition technology that identifies each person, but more needs to be done.
Fortunately, there exists a solution that not only uses facial recognition technology, but can do things like interpret a person’s mood. It can also identify weapons like the guns used in the attacks I outlined above.
Best of all, this technology can be installed discreetly. It hides in ads, kiosks, and digital signs that are all over places like airports. Anyone looking to commit a crime or act of terrorism won’t know they’re being watched. It’s a solution that has been put in place at stadiums, concerts, and even in the White House.
So it absolutely makes sense for a high-traffic area like an international airport.
With the number of people who pass through airports all over the world each year, something needs to be done to keep passengers safe.
And there’s one company behind a special version of this technology that just had its IPO and is set to take advantage of this modern-day security need.
Jason Simpkins has a full analysis in his Wealth Warrior publication that explains just why this important technology will be everywhere in the very near future.
You can learn more about it, and how you can profit, by clicking here.
Keep your eyes open,
Ryan Stancil
Contributing Editor, Outsider Club
