海角大神

As part of President Trump's controversial executive order barring travel to the US from seven Muslim-majority nations,聽the White House聽instructed the聽Department of Homeland Security to escalate the聽deployment of聽a biometric monitoring system聽to evaluate all聽visitors聽crossing聽US聽borders.

Now, Homeland Security is rushing to equip airports across the country with sophisticated facial recognition software,聽according to an聽agency聽official. The technology聽will聽check the identities of departing visitors to ensure they haven't overstayed visas, aren't wanted in criminal or terrorist investigations,聽and聽to聽confirm they aren't trying to聽leave the country with forged documents.

Since 2004, DHS has collected fingerprints from most foreigners entering the country to ensure imposters and criminals don't聽get in. But the department hasn't been able to similarly check the identities of departing visitors, largely because jetways, gangplanks, and highways weren鈥檛 built to accommodate聽fingerprint or facial聽sensors.

In a recent trial聽at Atlanta's聽Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, the agency聽successfully tested聽workstations that captured images聽to聽verify聽passengers'聽identities before聽boarding. At the nation's top airports, DHS also has tried mobile fingerprint scanners to identify foreigners exiting the country. In addition,聽DHS has experimented with capturing images of聽irises聽at聽an聽outdoor聽US-Mexico聽border crossing聽in聽Otay Mesa, Calif.

Now, the聽expansion of the multibillion dollar聽surveillance聽apparatus聽is already alarming privacy and civil liberty advocates.

"There needs to be much more of a conversation over what limitations and protections are going to be in place, what this means for the privacy of incoming travelers, how this could affect how Americans are treated when they travel overseas and the information they have to provide, and what the cybersecurity threats are," says聽Neema Singh Guliani, legislative counsel with the American Civil Liberties Union, who previously worked for the DHS Chief of Staff鈥檚 Office on national security and civil rights issues.

In addition to privacy issues, Ms.聽Guliani points out that recent research has聽raised聽questions聽about聽the accuracy of facial recognition technology.

For instance, algorithms in three state-of-the-art facial聽recognition systems all performed less accurately on females, Blacks,聽and聽adults under聽30, according to a 2012 IEEE聽聽coauthored by an FBI technologist.

"There is the possibility that individuals could be stopped or detained, stemming from either a false positive or a false negative," Ms. Guliani said.

Yet,聽on Wednesday, a DHS Customs and Border Protection (CBP) spokeswoman said the agency is accelerating the creation of a biometric exit system "by building upon existing operational platforms" and has found "a feasible solution."

The agency expects to scale up "the successful biometric pilots in operation" and will provide timelines and deployment schedules in the "near future," she added. CBP currently is collaborating with partners in industry and government to ensure the system works properly, the spokeswoman said.

When asked about privacy issues,聽the DHS official pointed to a聽Dec.16,聽2016, DHS聽privacy impact聽聽of the airport facial recognition program that lists measures taken to protect civil liberties and secure data systems.

The agency retains photos of nonimmigrant aliens and lawful permanent residents for a maximum of 15 years, and deletes any pictures of US citizens once their identities have been confirmed, according to the assessment. CBP officers connect mobile tablets to a virtual private network with two-factor authentication and strong encryption to transfer face snapshots to the agency's database. The images are deleted from the device after the flight is completed. Only agency personnel and CBP contractors can access the collection device and database. 聽

CBP acknowledges it does often聽聽information with federal, state, and local authorities, which may be authorized to use the information for purposes beyond the scope of the agency's mission.

Congress first聽passed a聽mandate for an automated system in 1996聽and continuously聽has repeated and expanded on the requirement for聽biometric checks to be implemented, most notably after the the 9/11 Commission endorsed the move. Two of the September 2001 hijackers overstayed their visas.聽

It was only recently, in January 2016, that the government estimated the number of visitors holding expired visas, based on text records, not biometrics. Roughly 500,000 of the nearly 45 million foreign travelers in 2015 overstayed, DHS reported.

CBP had been gearing up for a renewed focus on biometric exit under a new administration, even before Trump was elected, former Homeland Security officials say. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, while serving in the US Senate, co-sponsored legislation calling for a biometric entry-exit system and Trump said the issue would be a "top priority" if he won.

"The blowtorch just got a little hotter with this executive order," said Jim Williams, a former Homeland Security official who oversaw efforts to jumpstart biometric screening from 2003 to 2006.

Even with advanced tech,聽the logistics of operating biometric sensors at land and sea ports may remain a hurdle for some time, he predicted.聽How, without slowing traffic, "can you get a camera in a car?" Mr. Williams asked.

Even though criminals and terrorists may be able to dodge surveillance cameras, says Seth Stodder, DHS assistant secretary for border, immigration and trade policy under President Obama, "It鈥檚 a worthwhile thing to work on to track who鈥檚 coming in and out of the country."