Airport Business - 6

INSIDE THE FENCE

Published by

AUTHOR Joe Petrie, Editor-in-Chief

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Fort Atkinson WI 53538
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VOL. 33, NO. 5

Screen the Message First
MY FAVORITE part about evolving
technology in transportation is the
brash layer of efficiency it adds to the
journey.
Whether I'm boarding a city bus or an Airbus, I
love the fact I can just pull out my phone and flash
a pass and board. No paper tickets, no scrounging
through pockets, no dilly-dallying.
I make no qualms about my classification as an
aficionado of ruthless efficiency and how it makes
things much easier in my day in all facets of how I
work, travel and live.
This is why I'm such a fan of biometric boarding.
I don't even need my phone to board. One picture
cross referenced with a federal database and done. I'm
on the plane. No fuss, no muss.
But a recent story between JetBlue and a passenger
on Twitter went viral after the traveler expressed
concerns with how they had her information on file,
why they were able to scan her and how she could
opt out of the program.
Of course this was followed with headlines about
concerns and others saying it's "so overboard it should
be illegal." It can be easy to blame press outlets looking
for sensational headlines or people who may still not
grasp the post-9/11 world of air travel and the advanced
screening technology taking place to protect the public.
I think more than anything this is a wakeup call to
educate the public on biometrics and what this means

for air travel. More convenience in the terminal, faster
passenger processing and providing more protection
for the public at large is a good thing. Everyone is right
to be concerned about privacy issues, but just seeing
how one incident shows how ignorant the public at
large is about how the process works definitely shows
there's big room for education on this issue.
As biometric boarding continues to grow, it's
important airports, U.S Customs and Border
Protection, and airlines work together to spread the
word on how the technology works and show the
public the safeguards against abuse and fix them when
they appear. Winning the trust of the masses isn't easy,
so it's important everyone shows their cards now to
gain trust before there's another incident that garners
panic among ardent civil libertarians and privacy
advocates. I'm recalcintrant too, so I definitely get it.
I love technology and how it's changing the way
we travel; and I'm not alone. But just putting blind trust
in the technology isn't an option going forward, so
it's important everyone get ahead
of more panic before it happens.
If they don't, biometric facial
recognition technology could
become yet another "shouldawoulda-coulda" tool that the
U.S. fell flat on implementation.
- Joe

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6 \ AIRPORTBUSINESS / MAY 2019

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Airport Business

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