The LAX test is part of a larger push by Customs and Border Protection to meet a congressional mandate for biometric verification of people entering and leaving the country. The same technology is being used prior to boarding some international flights leaving the U.S. and for people entering the country at airports including Washington's Dulles airport and a border crossing with Mexico in Texas.
But critics worry facial recognition technology may misidentify people of color. An ACLU test incorrectly matched 28 members of Congress identifying them as people arrested for a crime. The false matches were disproportionately people of color.
Senator Ed Markey was also incorrectly matched in the ACLU test. He and Republican Senator Mike Lee have repeatedly called for the Department of Homeland Security to halt the rollout of biometrics while privacy rules are put in place.
"Go slow, build in the protections," Markey said. "Until they lay out how they're going to divide this discretion of security versus privacy, I think that we want a 'go slow' sign put out on the deployment of this technology."
He does not feel the current pace of the rollout is slow enough.
"They're actually accelerating the deployment of this technology without first telling Americans what their protections are for innocent Americans," Markey said.
Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said the technology is "mature" and "ready."
"The facial recognition is very accurate. Even an older photo we are very very high match rates. Ninety-nine percent plus if we have a photograph of that traveler," McAleenan said.
Markey says he wants proof the technology treats flyers equally. The TSA says it has to test it to figure out issues and that's why it's currently doing it on an opt-in basis. The CBP deletes photos of U.S. citizens, but only after it retains them for 12 hours in case of extended system outage. Photos of all other travelers are stored for up to 14 days.
