The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has begun implementing a new policy requiring passengers to have their photos taken before flying. Privacy advocates are raising concerns over this move, urging travelers to consider opting out.

“TSA’s implementation right now is not the worst-case scenario,” said Jeramie Scott, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s Project on Surveillance Oversight. “But the fact that there are no protections in place to limit how it’s used in the future or to guarantee the protections today remain in place ― it raises the risk and the likelihood that it will be expanded in very problematic ways.”

Scott emphasized the absence of laws ensuring transparency, oversight, and accountability to protect individuals' privacy and civil rights. “There’s no law requiring the necessary transparency, oversight and accountability to ensure that people’s privacy and civil rights are protected,” he stated. “Whatever you think the protections are, TSA can change on a whim.”

Opting out of this process allows travelers to signal their discomfort with facial recognition technology, according to Scott.

He acknowledged that the government already possesses substantial information about citizens through various means such as tax filings, benefit applications, online photo uploads, and widespread surveillance cameras.

However, Scott expressed greater concern for future implications. He warned that normalizing facial recognition software could enable the government to create extensive databases for tracking individuals’ movements and activities protected by the First Amendment.

“Right now, we generally control our ID,” Scott explained. “We get a physical ID that we can control and decide when to identify ourselves or hand over our identification. With our face as our ID, we lose that. Not only can the government then identify us without our permission, they also can do it without our knowledge if they want to.”