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DHS Will Use Facial Recognition To Scan Travelers at the Border (engadget.com) 91

Posted by msmash from the it's-here dept.
An anonymous reader shares a report: Last year, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) put out a notice, saying it was looking for a facial recognition system that could work with images taken of people inside their cars. The idea was that such a system could be used to scan people entering and leaving the country through the US/Mexico border and match them to government documents like passports and visas. Now, The Verge reports that DHS will be launching a test of a system aiming to do just that. The Vehicle Face System, as it's called, is scheduled for an initial deployment in August and it will be installed at the Anzalduas border crossing. The test will take place over one year and will aim to take images of passengers in every car that enters or leaves the US through the crossing.
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DHS Will Use Facial Recognition To Scan Travelers at the Border More

DHS Will Use Facial Recognition To Scan Travelers at the Border

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  • I have a question (Score:3)

    by slashmydots ( 2189826 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @04:22PM (#56733524)
    What exactly would this do that a passport wouldn't? If you want to know who someone is, tada, passport.

    • What exactly would this do that a passport wouldn't? If you want to know who someone is, tada, passport.

      Presumably, to speed up processing once travelers get to the checkpoint. From TFA: [bold mine]

      Those images will be matched to government documents and travelers will be verified before they get to the border checkpoint, in theory.

      • This is the primary use. They already use other automated targeting devices in advance of you arriving at the border as well(such as license plate scanners). Secondarily, it will help tracking smugglers, capturing people with falsified documents, identify people with criminal records/people who have been deported, etc.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by harrkev ( 623093 )

          people with criminal records/people who have been deported

          Given that it is not that hard to enter this country and completely bypass the checkpoints, that is not really much of an argument. Honest people come in via the real crossing points. Criminals enter as far away from them as possible. This is easily proven by the number of people that have been deported three or more times, but still wind up here.

          • I've worked at the border. This isn't true. People coming in with false documents or claiming a false identity is fairly common. Now, perhaps people also try to enter by other means, that doesn't mean that they don't also try to enter through the ports. Using coyotes or crossing in the desert is much more likely to result in a dangerous/negative outcome than showing up at the border with false documents or claiming you lost your documents and claiming Credible Fear asylum, so plenty of people don't do t

      • I thought you guys were building a big fucking fence to take care of this.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by davecb ( 6526 )

        The false negative/false positive rate has to be multiplied by the (number of people in the database * number of people you're scanning) to get the (number of comparisons). You multiply that by the failure rate and you get...
        The german federal security service stopping someone's grandmother to see if she is a (male) terrorist (:-))

      • In theory, this is actually pretty useful. Global Entry already uses this technique - you get a basic vetting, you get fingerprinted, and you can then use it to skip the lines for immigration and customs. In practice, however, the thing that kills the whole process is the post-immigration, post-customs repeat security line that doesn't have a separate line for Global Entry and Precheck passengers. I'm looking at you, Atlanta. You have a group of people who have already been deemed low-risk, who have used bi

    • What exactly would this do that a passport wouldn't?

      Possibly verify the person entering is really the person named on the passport, and not someone using a forged or cloned passport?

      • What exactly would this do that a passport wouldn't?

        Possibly verify the person entering is really the person named on the passport, and not someone using a forged or cloned passport?

        Passports are actually checked against the DHS database and both include a photo so I'm not sure how an extra photo would help. The purpose if this new system is to process an image and pull up the record *before* the car gets to the checkpoint and speed up processing. (as stated in TFA)

    • Re:I have a question (Score:5, Informative)

      by bmimatt ( 1021295 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @04:38PM (#56733604)
      As someone who somewhat frequently crosses the border with Mexico by car in SoCal... You almost never need passport to drive to Mexico, you need it when/if you want to come back to the US. When you drive south, there is no US checkpoint of any kind, just some cameras and devices. One of these definitely is a plate reader, the rest I do not know. Once you are past that, you drive through the Mexican checkpoint, which picks cars at random for inspection. Green light - you keep going, red - you pull over and Mexican border agent comes over for a quick chat.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ls671 ( 1122017 )

      People with multiple names and nationalities, multiple passports including fake ones etc. Don't you ever watch TV? :)

    • It would transfer taxpayer money to the corporation that builds, installs, and maintains the system.
    • speed, less humans, no need for breaks, etc.
    • As someone mentioned, it will speed up processing. The line coming into the US at busy crossings is fairly long. San Ysidro, Calexico, El Paso, etc can have hour long waits at peak times.

      Secondarily, it's for security. They already use other automated targeting devices in advance of you arriving at the border as well(such as license plate scanners). It will help tracking smugglers(capturing patterns of behavior that can be profiled), capturing people with falsified documents, identify people with c

    • What exactly would this do that a passport wouldn't? If you want to know who someone is, tada, passport.

      With facial recognition systems, the more sample photos of a subject you have, the better it works. A lot better than having just one passport picture.

      The DHS folks want to build a bigger database that allows law enforcement folks to better identify criminal folks from surveillance cameras.

      • Re:I have a question (Score:4, Interesting)

        by BlueStrat ( 756137 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @09:11PM (#56734758)

        With facial recognition systems, the more sample photos of a subject you have, the better it works. A lot better than having just one passport picture.

        The DHS folks want to build a bigger database that allows law enforcement folks to better identify criminal folks from surveillance cameras.

        This.

        It's about building facial databases which can be shared among the various Federal. and State agencies and departments.

        If anyone thinks it will only be used to identify and track "criminals" and not journalists, whistle blowers, political enemies and more, they are fools.

        Couple this with AI using facial micro-expression analysis and you can quickly learn anything about anyone, how someone will react to a given situation, their strengths & weaknesses, if they're lying or telling the truth, what makes them angry, sad, happy, what scares them, or makes them laugh, cry...or kill.

        The more data/images/video the AI has to work with, the more specific and precise the predictive ability and also conversely the ability to know what will manipulate individuals and groups to do, say, and believe whatever those in control desire.

        Strat

    • Give money to vendors to advance the technology toward the eventual goal of ubiquitous tracking in public places.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Passports can be fake (created for a person using fake information), real using a different person for one occasion, shared over a longer term.
      Some nations don't have a functioning passport service.
      Nations will create a passport for cash rather than see if that person is a citizen.
      People arrive in the USA with fake created documents. Fictional new documents created to allow them to "move" to the USA and start a new life.
      People who have lived in the USA for years illegally under a fake name who want t

  • In other news ... (Score:3)

    by Alain Williams ( 2972 ) <addw@phcomp.co.uk> on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @04:36PM (#56733598) Homepage

    sales of Ronald Reagan masks near the border are up 1000%.

    • sales of Ronald Reagan masks near the border are up 1000%.

      Darn it, Roland Reagan is crossing the border 10,000 times a day now? That's really busy for a guy who doesn't vote democrat from the shady rest cemetery...

  • Yet another reason not to visit the USA.

    • Re:Yet another reason... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by PsychoSlashDot ( 207849 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @05:37PM (#56733920)

      Yet another reason not to visit the USA.

      Pretty much. I've got nothing to hide, but the ever-increasing security theater intensity makes me fearful. The odds of being incorrectly flagged as a person-of-interest are incredibly low, but the consequence of such an event is massive. The more hoops I have to jump through, the more the odds and the consequence increase.

      I live in a (Canadian) border town, but I basically don't cross anymore unless I'm going to the nearby US international airport to go somewhere else.

      Shopping in Detroit? Nope. Visiting heritage places in Michigan? Nope. Attending concerts at American venues? Nope. Conferences? Art shows? Air shows? Woodward Dream Cruise? Nope, nope, nope, nope.

      To my American friends... I live in a free nation. Coming to visit you is fucking frightening, what with the razor wire and bulletproof-vest-wearing-German-Shepherds, and the angry muscle agents with guns, and the cameras, and the cameras, and the what-the-fuck-is-that-thing scanners pointed at my car, and the simple fact that if I am misheard or misunderstood, my border-crossing "rights", along with my anus and my freedom are moment from being dramatically altered. You're nice people as people. But as a nation, your paranoia makes you scary to visit.

      • if Peter Watt's [gizmodo.com] experience is anything to go by. I'm consistently embarrassed by my country. Hell, We've now had to presidents who support torture for Pete's sake.

      • I guess you don't go anywhere then. I just went to Japan on vacation and not only did they take my picture, they fingerprinted me when I arrived in their nation. You go to a foreign country, you play by their rules. If you don't play by their rules, don't get upset when they kick you out.

      • Re:Yet another reason... (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Scroatzilla ( 672804 ) on Wednesday June 06, 2018 @08:48AM (#56736416) Homepage Journal

        "I live in a free nation" as in "free to follow politically correct compelled speech laws." No thank you, I'll stick to the *actually free* country.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Anonymous Coward

        I live in a free nation

        Sure, so long as you dont write anything "hateful" online. Then your IP can be tracked and you can be arrested in Canada.

        http://toronto.citynews.ca/2017/07/24/mississauga-man-charged-with-hate-crime-over-alleged-online-comments/

        My favorite part of the story is at the top:

        This story has been edited due to a publication ban.

  • from people with beards and glasses (most modern nerds) who get stopped and questioned for 2 hours everytime they go overseas. There's all sorts of things facial recognition has trouble with.

    As for why they're doing this, it's called probably cause. They'll use a match to establish prob cause and use that to get a warrant for searches. Same reason we do lie detector tests we've proven don't work.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Advanced facial recognition can work on an almost 3d series of side, top down, looking up image of a face.
      Beards and glasses do not create a problem as so many other measurements are taken of a face.
      Modern facial recognition has had a lot of nations spend a lot of money on funding to ensure a face can be detected and the measurements will be correct and the results fast.

  • Its not enough that they get my photograph in my passport folder. They then take my photograph as I hand them my photograph found in that passport. Now they want to take more photographs to do facial recognition, because they don't have enough photographs to be completely sure that I was the same person that just handed them my passport?

    And I thought I was the one that was supposed to be paranoid at the border crossing?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      People try to share passports.
      Skilled people sell fake US passports.
      People in the US gov sell real new US passports for money to anyone with money.
      People create a series of fake and real documents all over the USA to build up a new identity to then get a real US passport.
      So the photo in a US passport cannot be trusted as the entire creation of a US passport cannot be trusted.
      People walking around wanting to enter the USA can get passport form any nation selling passports. Nations that give away their

  • The first use of this new facial recognition will be to try to catch Melania as she seeks asylum status with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

  • Welp. We're in a giant prison now. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Catbeller ( 118204 ) on Tuesday June 05, 2018 @05:32PM (#56733896) Homepage

    Title says it all.

  • Juan
    Juan
    Juan
    Juan
    Enrique
    Juan
    Juan
    Juan
    Two kids disguised as an adult in an overcoat
    Juan
    Juan
    Juan

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Someone sell a truckload of Trump masks to the Mexicans :-)

  • Fix the real problem (Score:3)

    by MoarSauce123 ( 3641185 ) on Wednesday June 06, 2018 @06:10AM (#56735784)
    Invest into businesses in Mexico and other countries so that the folks there get decent jobs that secure their outcome and generate a decent standard of living. That will be far cheaper than any border wall or facial recognition or other high tech toys.None of those who risk their lives coming to the US do that just for fun. If they no longer see a need to leave their home country the issue will mostly be resolved. It will also make it less likely that people see a career in the narcos as a viable path. I bet anyone would rather glue cars together than be constantly on the run.

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