25/07/29 - they knew my face

so i recently started jotting down ideas for things to write on here when i'm out and about, and i've been sitting on this one for a bit now.

on the 1st of july i flew from africa to asia, and on the way i had a layover in hong kong.

everything was business as normal, until i had to check my flight ticket to get onto the plane to leave hong kong. now, i don't know if this is a new thing, or if it's been around for a while, but it was my first time going through hong kong, and the first time i experienced it.

normally, there'll be a couple workers standing by the gate to check your passport and flight ticket, and then they let you on the plane. not so this time.

instead, they simply had me walk through a gate, look into a camera, and then the gate opened and let me through.

of course, the more reasonable interpretation for this is that they simply record everyone's faces, and then go through and check the records in case anything comes up.

the other, scarier interpretation is that they already have a database of people's faces, and have it automatically check the person walking through the gate against their database.

that being said, i don't particularly like either option.

even if "all they're doing" is recording the faces of everyone that goes through, that's still uncomfortable in terms of privacy. but of course the implications of having automatic face recognition software and a database of everyone's faces are much worse.

of course, travelling internationally at all is pretty much impossible while also maintaining any degree of privacy, unless you're travelling illegally. being tracked every time i go through an airport leaves a bad taste in my mouth, but what can i do about it?

contact me at: tsukaj@tilde.club