This article originally appeared on Leo Hohmann’s Substack and was republished with permission
Joe Biden’s Transportation Security Administration is moving forward with plans to expand facial-recognition technology at 430 U.S. airports despite the fact that a bill has been introduced with bipartisan support calling for the government to end the invasive policy of stealing the biometric data of millions of airport passengers.
The TSA announced it will install enhanced Credential Authentication Technology (CAT) devices at the airports, an upgrade from previous units used in a pilot program at nearly 30 U.S. airports.
“TSA uses facial recognition algorithms developed by top-performing vendors,” the agency says in its press release. This is a system powered by artificial intelligence. In the press release, TSA makes it sound like it is willing to jump through any hoop to protect passengers’ privacy, when we know this is an outright lie. In another document, Homeland Security, under which TSA is a sub agency, admits they are collecting personally identifiable data on people at airports.
The latest CAT scanners, known as CAT-2 units, incorporate facial-recognition technology by capturing real-time pictures of travelers and comparing them against their photo IDs. These units have been deployed at nearly 30 airports nationwide and will now be rolled out at more than 400 “federalized” airports in the coming years, reports MSN.
As of now, participation in facial recognition screenings is supposedly optional for travelers, who can choose to stick with the standard physical ID verification process. But there have been countless firsthand accounts from airport passengers who have indicated that they were not given any option by TSA to reject the face scans.
The CAT-2 units utilize one-to-one verification, comparing photos against government-issued identification. They say they delete the images from their system soon after taking them (who are they fooling, we know they keep this data for a very long time if not indefinitely).
According to MSN: “The TSA emphasizes that photos are not stored after a positive ID match, except during limited testing for evaluating technology effectiveness. This testing involves a block of two to four weeks at specific locations, with data collected and submitted to the DHS Science and Technology Directorate for independent analysis.”
Here’s the catch: TSA may not keep the data for more than a few weeks, but they have no control over Homeland Security and other entities to which they pass the information on.
A bipartisan group of senators, led by Senators John Kennedy (R-Louisiana) and Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon), introduced legislation in November 2023 to ban TSA from using facial recognition, citing privacy concerns. The government’s increasing reliance on facial recognition has prompted calls for greater regulations around its quickly expanding usage.
The senators say their bill, called the Travelers’ Privacy Protection Act, or TPPA, would prevent the agency from “further exploiting the technology and storing traveler’s biodata.”
The decision by the Biden regime to go ahead and expand this invasive, tyrannical tracking program in the face of congressional concerns, tells you all you need to know about this regime. They could care less what the people or their representatives think about their globalist beast-system policies.
The senators stressed that the overwhelming majority of Americans are unaware that they have the right to opt out of the facial screenings. Nobody is asked if they wish to grant permission for the government to scan their faces, it’s just sneakily performed on the spot.
Airports are supposed to have a sign alerting travelers that their photo will be taken as part of the pilot program and that they have the right to opt out, but most passengers say the signs are so small they didn’t even notice them.
Michele Bachmann, a former Republican member of Congress from Minnesota who ran for president in 2012, contacted me this past weekend to inform me of a recent experience encountered at a U.S. airport.
“I walked up to the agent at security in Norfolk; rather than handing her my ID she told me to put it in a card-reader machine.
“Then she said, ‘look into the camera.’ Before I could respond, the camera had taken my picture. She told me the camera matched my face with my ID!
“There was no choice.”
I also recently reported that the TSA is allowing illegal aliens to board airplanes without showing any ID at all. They are politely asked if they will submit to a face scan but have the option of saying “no.”
This is part of the “two Americas” system that is taking shape in this country. One set of standards applies to foreign nationals and another to U.S. citizens. Two Americas — often operating within the same jurisdiction within a two-tiered system of justice which they refer to as a “democracy.” Any U.S. citizen who complains about this system, or even questions it, risks getting placed on a government watchlist of persons considered to be, as described by the globalists who run the government and media, “a threat to our democracy.”
It won’t be long before this face-scanning technology is required of patrons checking into hotels, casting their votes in elections, checking into a hospital, and any number of other everyday functions in life. This is the beast system envisioned by the WEF’ers associated with the Great Reset and Fourth Industrial Revolution. These technocrats envision an Orwellian world of total information awareness, where they have the right to scoop up your personal information while performing literally every daily function, tracking and monitoring you in real time. This is so they can assess whether you are staying within your soon-to-be allotted daily carbon footprint. Once the central bank digital currencies are in place, they will simply put a freeze on your bank account when you’ve surpassed your carbon limit for the month. And if you have a complaint, who will you lodge it with? The whole system will be run by non-human artificial intelligence!
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The post Leo Hohmann: Biden Regime Expanding Intrusive Facial Recognition Scans to All 430 ‘Federalized’ Airports appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.