Extreme Vetting: Six U.S. Airports Now Use Facial Scans--Even On U.S. Citizens

Six major airports in the United States are participating in pilot programs that require Americans traveling abroad to submit to facial-recognition scans when leaving the country, the Associated Press reported. Airports in Boston, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, New York City and Washington, D.C. have all started to implement the biometric scanning procedures, with plans to expand the program to a number of other high-volume international airports across the country by the start of next year. News of the biometric scans being active at airports and used to scan American citizens prior to boarding their flights is the latest development in the increased effort by the Donald Trump administration to implement strong vetting procedures for those coming and going from the country. U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) Larry Panetta spoke about adoption of facial recognition technology earlier this year at the Border Security Expo, where he suggested there was already enough information in the government's systems that facial recognition technology could already identify many travelers. "We currently have everyone's photo, so we don't need to do any sort of enrollment," Panetta said at the event.