Item — HN Reader

I've opted out the last three times while traveling between Europe and the United States, but each time the worker has given me grief about it. One badgered me repeatedly about why I wanted to opt out, and then interrupted my answer to lecture me about much more tracking I am subject to as a smartphone user.

The fourth time I just didn't have the energy – not the desire to put my wife through all that again – to opt out. I don't like it, but they wore my willpower down. With human nature to avoid conflict, friction and sticking out from the crowd, increased surveillance measures will win nine out of ten times.

What surprised me was how enthusiastic/sold on facial recognition the TSA employees were, and how many pro-facial recognition posters were decorating the walls leading up to security.

2 comments

I assume it's standard practice to punish people for opting out.

I feel like I'm not smart enough to figure this out so I'll just ask. You are very against a scan of your face by the people who you just handed a photo id to because...

Mostly because society (at least in the US) does not yet have the protections in place to stop corporations and government agency from abusing automated surveillance. Who has permission to perform mass facial recognition? What are the limits on privacy invasion by third parties or by the government? So far, in the US, the only significant limitations are social pressure against these practices.

That brings me to my second reason for wanting to opt out – even if this facial recognition policy is perfectly implemented, with wonderful privacy guards, it is still normalizing this kind of mass surveillance and data gathering in the mind of the public.

Twenty years ago, I believe most people would have been shocked and uncomfortable with the amount of tracking that occurs today. You also seem quite comfortable with it, and I think you're in the majority. My opting out is a tiny, insignificant vote that I don't think this should be normalized.