(N.Morgan) Recently leaked documents reveal a stunning plan to employ an experimental facial recognition programs at the US Customs check points at various borders.

Which means more tracking and surveillance of the citizenry and less privacy for us.

The facial recognition pilot program has been launched as of last week by US Customs and Border Protection, which civil liberties advocates say could lead to new potentially privacy-invading programs, is just the first of three biometric experiments that the feds are getting ready to launch.

3 experiments involve a new controversial technologies such as  iris and face scanner kiosks, which CBP plans to deploy at the Mexican border, and facial recognition software, according to a leaked document obtained by Motherboard.

The CBP did not respond to Motherboard’s questions regarding these programs.

The slides were leaked to Motherboard by Arjun Sethi, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) legislative counsel, who attended a presentation held on March 10 at the CBP headquarters.

The second pilot is called Biometric Exit (BE) Mobile Experiment and has the goal of helping CBP “confirm with certainty that a foreigner traveler has departed the United States.”

These tactics of tracking and surveillance have surpassed previous technologies.

As part of this experiment, the slides say that the CBP officers at the Atlanta Hartsfield International airport will use a “handheld device” to record the exit of a foreign national from the US and create a match with the person’s entry records, in order to figure out whether a foreigner has stayed in the US more than he or she was allowed to.

It’s unclear what the device actually does, but according to another person who attended the presentation at the CBP, the device is probably a fingerprint reader.

The third pilot is called Pedestrian Biometric Experiment and it will be deployed at the Otay Mesa border between the United States and Mexico, according to the slides.

The CBP plan to install devices capable of scanning a traveler’s face and iris, replacing existing entry kiosks, the agency explains in the slides. Other gizmos to be deployed include RFID document readers, iris biometric scanners, and facial biometric cameras, according to a sketch of the border station included in the slides.

Since these 2 programs as well as the facial recognition are only in the experimental phase at this time,  privacy advocates warn that there’s a risk of mission creep, and that technologies like those used for these experiments could soon be deployed more widely.

Moreover, given the ever-increasing political pressure to secure the border with Mexico, the third program has good chances to be fully implemented.

“The public should take notice,” Sethi, of the ACLU, told Motherboard.

“These programs may be coming to a theater near you.”

Biometric Entry and ExitCBP Biometric Entry and Exit Program

References:

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/leaked-document-reveals-upcoming-biometric-experiments-at-us-customs

http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Apex%20Air%20Entry%20and%20Exit%20Re-Engineering-AEER-508_0.pdf

Biometric Entry and ExitCBP Biometric Entry and Exit Program

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/us-customs-quietly-launches-facial-recognition-experiment-at-dc-airport

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