My favorite part about evolving technology in transportation is the brash layer of efficiency it adds to the journey.
Whether I’m boarding a city bus or an Air Bus, I love the fact I can just pull out my phone and flash a pass and board. No paper tickets, no scrounging through pockets, no dilly-dallying.
I make no qualms about my classification as an aficionado of ruthless efficiency and how it makes things much easier in my day in all facets of how I work, travel and live.
This is why I’m such a fan of biometric boarding. I don’t even need my phone to board. One picture cross referenced with a federal database and done. I’m on the plane. No fuss, no muss.
But a recent story between JetBlue and a passenger on Twitter went viral after the traveler expressed concerns with how they had her information on file, why they were able to scan her and how she could opt out of the program.
Of course this was followed with headlines about concerns and others saying it’s “so overboard it should be illegal.” It can be easy to blame press outlets looking for sensational headlines or people who may still not grasp the post-9/11 world of air travel and the advanced screening technology taking place to protect the public.
I think more than anything this is a wakeup call to educate the public on biometrics and what this means for air travel. More convenience in the terminal, faster passenger processing and providing more protection for the public at large is a good thing. Everyone is right to be concerned about privacy issues, but just seeing how once incident shows how ignorant the public at large is about how the process works definitely shows there’s big room for education on this issue.
As biometric boarding continues to grow, it’s important airports, U.S Customs and Border Protection, and airlines work together to spread the word on how the technology works and show the public the safeguards against abuse. Winning the trust of the masses isn’t easy, so it’s important everyone shows their cards now to gain trust before there’s another incident that garners panic among ardent civil libertarians and privacy advocates.
I love technology and how it’s changing the way we travel; and I’m not alone. But just putting blind trust in the technology isn’t an option going forward, so it’s important everyone get ahead of more panic before it happens.
If they don’t, biometric facial recognition technology could become yet another “shoulda-woulda-coulda” tool that the U.S. fell flat on implementation.
