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Comment by robgibbons | Hacker News Reader

I've had no such trouble in Boston. In Denver, I got an annoyed agent, but no argument. They flipped through their TSA state ID binder and did the customary comparison, but no argument.

I actually have taken up the habit of wearing a surgical mask through security simply for this purpose, right up until I've opted out and they have my ID in hand. When they ask me to lower it I do, but not until I've opted out.

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I had a similar experience with an annoyed agent, who also made sure to point out how I was holding everyone else up instead of just letting my picture be taken. The agent likely didn’t realize that showing that pettiness really reaffirmed my choice as to why the data collection is dangerous to begin with.

The surgical mask is an excellent low friction strategy. Even if the camera ("accidentally") gets a few snaps of your face, they will be (mostly) useless. And post COVID-19, you still see some people wearing masks on flights, so you don't entirely look like a crazy person.

BTW you should probably still be wearing a mask on a flight if you don't want COVID-19. You also avoid many other diseases as a bonus. This is the new normal - public health is dead and it's all pushed onto the individual now.

Masks don’t keep you from getting COVID. They only help prevent you from spreading it.

Depends on the mask. N95 protects you pretty well.

It is true that most masks were build initially to prevent airborne transmissions from wearer to others, typically patients in a surgical setting. However studies have later shown that protection works both way.

> Masks don’t keep you from getting COVID. They only help prevent you from spreading it.

???

Most masks don't have a one-way valve that only filters your exhalation, leaving inhaled air unfiltered. Any given mask is going to be roughly as good at filtering incoming air as it is at filtering outgoing air.

Both. To some extent.

My thinking exactly. Surgical masks are commonplace on flights now, and I assume by default that those cameras are already on when I step up.

I wouldn't say it renders the camera "(mostly) useless." I have brief experience developing software to work with a facial-recognition camera that was specifically marketed as being able to recognize people wearing masks (this was in the middle of Covid). Indeed, it had no problem recognizing me with a high confidence level. If anything, wearing the mask is (mostly) useless in protecting your identity.

I'm not particularly interested in concealing my identity from the TSA. My intention is more to prevent the collection of a high-resolution 3D scan which didn't previously exist -- which I would wager the mask effectively does.

I understand it's possible to construct a 3D representation of my face using only still photographs, so it may be in vain, but I'll wear the mask and admit it may be pure ignorant superstition.

> They flipped through their TSA state ID binder and did the customary comparison

Wait, what is this? I've never seen anything like that, normally they just check the name on the ID matches the boarding pass.

You're saying they literally had a book of all state IDs?

> They flipped through their TSA state ID binder and did the customary comparison Wait, what is this? I've never seen anything like that, normally they just check the name on the ID matches the boarding pass.

You're saying they literally had a book of all state IDs?

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