Northwest Airlines Wants Eye-Scan Check-in

Headius writes: "According to the Associated Press, Northwest Airlines is testing out a check-in system that uses eye scans to identify customers, and provide a faster way to check in. The article is here locally, and probably making its way to other news sites as well." Bruce Schneier posted a while ago this neat summary of some of the limitations of biometrics, worth re-reading. One question I have, how long will you eyes stay on record?

Comments

The questions that I always had.

[thesolo]

The questions I always had about retinal scans is what happens in the situation of someone who has a glass eye?

Do the scans ignore it, or do they try to recognize it as a real eye? If so, does it pass or fail the system?? I imagine it would fail, since there is no retina to scan.

And what happens when they change their glass eye to a new one, that might be slightly different looking; would they no longer be recognized as the same person?

If anyone knows, please respond, I'm curious!

Contacts?

[asv108]

Do contact lenses interfere with this technology in any way?

Re:Why is this about terrorism?

[alizard]

For a bunch of technophiles we sure are afraid of new technologies...

These technologies are dangerous to us whether they work or they fail.

We are afraid of being attacked by uniformed thugs at airports and soon, bus stations and shopping malls because the biometric system came up with yet another false positive. Like to be mistaken for bin Laden and have your shopping trip be interrupted by a SWAT team?

We are concerned about our privacy being invaded (ever been stalked?) for personal or political reasons. America is now a land where the government can take anyone, declare that person a "terrorist", and detain that person indefinitely without a trial or even an attorney. Should we want that government to know where we are at all times?

We are concerned because we know that this stuff is NOT ready for prime time but is being sold to PHB types who can easily be scammed and to journalists who don't have the tech skills or knowledge to be know when they're being snowed as a "solution" to protect us from terrorists and criminals. The biometrics companies aren't doing this out of interest in public safety, they are doing this in hopes of an IPO and a quick cash-out..

Which category do you fall into? PHB? Tech-illiterate journalist? Or are you a shill for a biometrics company?

Easy ways to defeat biometrics

Face/iris scanner failures.