ACLU sues US for records of facial-recognition use at airports

The American Civil Liberties Union is suing federal agencies for records about the use of facial recognition at airports and other places where travelers enter the US, the latest salvo in a nationwide activist campaign to halt use of the technology. The suit, filed Thursday in US District Court for the Southern District of New York, seeks to compel the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies to release documents regarding the policy’s use, including government contracts with airports and airlines. The group asked for the records in January under the Freedom of Information Act. The department has been expanding the use of facial recognition to identify people entering the country at airports, and in August 2019 told Congress it had processed 20m travellers using the technology. Airlines have also partnered with the government to scan faces to identify travellers in place of boarding passes. “If this technology is normalized at the airport, it’s only a matter of time before the government cites its use at airports as a basis for deploying it elsewhere,” said ACLU staff attorney Ashley Gorski in a blog post Thursday. <br/>