TSA to begin using new facial matching technology at Ted Stevens Anchorage airport

The Transportation Security Administration is rolling out new identity verification technology using face recognition — the first in Alaska — called Credential Authentication Technology 2, at security checkpoints within the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport.

TSA says the process is optional. The new technology requires a TSA officer to feed a passenger’s ID into the CAT-2 machine, while the passenger’s photo is captured. The machine then uses facial matching technology, which nearly instantly compares a person’s ID photo to their real-time photo by analyzing biometric information for each, including the distance between a person’s eyes, or the curvature of their nose, according to TSA spokesperson Lorie Dankers.

Photos and biographic information are deleted from TSA devices immediately after each transaction, said Dankers at an event Thursday demonstrating the new technology at the Anchorage airport.

“We don’t store those photos, we don’t use them,” Dankers said. “We’re not comparing it to a database of photos. Nothing.”

Signs beside the airport’s three security checkpoints tell travelers “Your participation is optional.” For people opting out, TSA agents instead will scan a person’s ID — which still presents agents with traveler’s information, including full name, age, postal code and boarding pass — and visually compare a person’s ID to their physical appearance.

That’s the process hundreds of TSA agents across the country have been following for the last two years, with the first generation of the Credential Authentication Technology, or CAT-1, units. But in the last several months, TSA has been revamping those units to include facial matching technology.

Nationwide, there are currently about 600 first-generation CAT units in use, and 1,440 second-generation units, Dankers said.

TSA representatives said Thursday the new technology makes it easier to verify travelers’ identities.

“It’s not so much in that it changes how we do the ID portion, It’s more on how we do the face match,” said Vance Zakrzewski, a TSA agent in Anchorage, about the difference between the two. “That face matching is the next stage of how we figure out that you are who you are, and not, say, a relative that looks very similar to you.”

Zakrzewski said that in visually matching folks to their IDs, small appearance changes such as beards or glasses can make his job more challenging, and have sometimes required him to ask travelers for an additional photo ID.

“Now, we don’t have to do that layer,” he said. “The machine will do that for us, and we just double-check.”

The new technology has a 99.7% accuracy rate, Dankers said. It can also detect against fraudulent IDs.

Nationally, the voluntary facial recognition technology has inspired some pushback and legislation.

In November 2023, a bipartisan group of five senators introduced a bill that would ban the collection of biometric data at U.S. airports. That bill was endorsed by the American Civil Liberties Union. Then in May, 14 senators sent a letter urging senate leaders to back the restriction of facial recognition technology across the country due to “the potential for misuse.”

“Once Americans become accustomed to government facial recognition scans, it will be that much easier for the government to scan citizens’ faces everywhere, from entry into government buildings to passive surveillance on public property like parks, schools, and sidewalks,” the letter reads.

A handful of travelers in a snaking TSA line on Thursday had positive, to apathetic, to negative responses to the new technology. One woman, learning about the facial matching, said she “hate(ed) it,” and her travel companion called it communist.

Ted Mala, an Anchorage physician who was heading to a wedding in San Diego, said “anything that verifies people is a good thing.”

Mala said he’d already seen the CAT-2 units at other U.S. airports. “I have no problem with any kind of security technology. They erase the picture, so people should not be worried.”

“We’re already so surveilled, what’s a little more?” said Kendra Mack, headed home to Utqiagvik, behind Mala in line.

Stuart Parks, an Anchorage resident in route to visit his kid in college at the University of California, San Diego, compared the new technology to facial recognition biometrics that those with Global Entry sign up for, where citizens can willingly give the government their specific biometrics for ease of reentry at customs when they return to the United States from another country.

If you travel internationally, this might not be a huge difference for you, Parks said.

Minors without photo identification will just need to present their boarding passes to TSA agents.

According to Dankers, the technology also will be coming to Juneau’s airport in the coming weeks.