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Comment by browningstreet | Hacker News Reader

On my last trip back from Europe in June, when I re-entered the US, US Customs & Border Control didn't ask for my passport. No one did. They did wave a webcam connected to a computer in front of my face, and then a moment later, called out my name and said I could enter. Same with everyone coming through the international border area.

I think that's just as weird a development and worthy of "WTH?" as this topic.

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BOS got unstaffed camera kiosks some years back, and being the wise-ass I am, I made a funny face for the camera, figuring the picture would end up stored for all eternity on a computer, never having been seen by human eyes.

At that point in time, they were still having humans in the loop, and I got a different kind of funny look from the customs or immigration person I spoke to some minutes later.

I got a third kind of funny look once we were allowed back into the country from my highly unamused wife...

Never have fun with border control. Know your audience.

-- dad only had two hard fast rules with us growing up - never ever ride a motorbike - never ever joke around at border control --

I took a bus many years ago from Rochester, NY to Toronto, ON. As ID for crossing the border, I only had my driver's license, not my passport, as this was allowed at the time. But the border agent was a bit grumpy about it for some reason. He asked if I had a birth certificate, and I thought I'd be cute about it and responded, "Sure, of course I've got one... but not with me! :D" He stared at me dead faced and just said, "Go over there and wait in line J". Line J felt kind of like "The group W bench" from the song Alice's Restaurant. I waited in that line for about 45 minutes for the new border agent to give me a tired look and then wave me through. The rest of the passengers on the bus waiting for me were not amused.

At the passport control kiosks, they can just scan your face and give you an exit ticket. It was super quick, and surprising. I was able to skip talking to an immigration agent completely. They can do this because they have photos of me from previous kiosk visits, and because they can restrict the universe of photos they need to check to just those who were on recent flights. I wonder how well it works for twins traveling together or something. For any level of uncertainty, they can just have you go talk to a human instead.

Were you on the illusion that they didn't have your biometric data? Or that they didn't have the passenger list with your name in it? Those two are pretty transparent (and honestly, not a big deal).

Does biometric here mean your passport photo? I totally believe this is the official name, but the nomenclature definitely opens up the possibility of concept creep so that biometric data can mean anything from the mundane to the terrifying

A set of high quality photos, from a few different angles, a set of fingerprints, and quite possibly a sample of your writing gait. Also, very likely, some measurement of your height.

Those are pretty standard for most countries.

Thanks for the info, I was wondering what all was involved. I still think that falls under the mundane

> Does biometric here mean your passport photo?

Yes, in my country it also is updated with the most recent driver license photos.

I think federal facial recognition feels like a pretty big deal. But I also realize the egg's been cracked.

It's quite unavoidable. We are much better regulating how it's done than prohibiting it at all.

Pretty much all passports have biometrics now. I assume they can work out who you are from that.

In Australia it's an autogate with a face scan for citizens and PR's, you only deal with a person if it can't identify you, which is rare.

All US passports issued in the past 15 years are biometric passports.

That surprised me as well, but even freakier, my sister flew into the US with her 3 year old who looks nothing like her passport photo since it was taken when she was 6 months old.

Held the kid up to the camera and boom - full name and DOB pops up.

Pretty clear the facial recognition tech works well, but I also wonder if there is backend matching with passenger lists as well.

Same. I think it's great. Saves me having to take out my passport and the border control agent has all the info they need. Yes, your face is saved in their DB but so are your fingerprints.

Do you have global entry?

No, but I do have TSA Pre, and this was the open entry point for all US citizens.

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