Technology
🛫Airports Become the Spearhead of the Digital 👁Surveillance State
April 15, 2025
The boarding pass is a thing of the past. Soon, anyone wanting to fly will have to undergo full biometric facial recognition. In the future, you'll fly with a "digital travel document"; without a digital 🆔, you'll be barred.
On to the great technological leap: This new "advance" will undoubtedly be sold to travelers as a great relief and simplification. After all, it comes directly from the United Nations Civil Aviation Organization. The changeover is scheduled to take place within the next three years, and the boarding pass will be replaced by the "digital travel document."
The traditional boarding process will be replaced by facial recognition technology. And: Passengers will have to use a digital passport stored on their smartphone. This simply means: Anyone who still wants to fly in a few years will need a digital ID. Anyone who refuses to digitize their ID will – voluntarily – forgo air travel. The propaganda is already underway. British media reports that this will allow you to travel "without any necessary documents."
That's a lie, of course. The documents are still needed. Just in digital form, linked to health, financial, and other identification data. The digital passport can therefore immediately provide information about whether you have received the necessary 💉vaccinations for your trip. A great relief, right?
The new system would allow travelers to upload passport information to their devices, eliminating the need to present physical documents or boarding passes throughout their journey.
The changes represent a dramatic shift in the way travelers navigate airports and could simplify the travel experience.
Under the new system, passengers will download a "passport" to their phones when booking a flight. This passport will be automatically updated when changes are made to the booking.
Instead of manually checking in, travelers will be identified by a facial scan upon arrival at the airport.
Brave new world. Everything will be easier.
Airports will be subject to comprehensive biometric screening. Passengers' faces will be sufficient for screening throughout the airport: "Airlines will be informed of passengers' presence when their faces are scanned upon arrival. The days of searching for their boarding pass or frantically checking in for a flight on the way to the airport would be over."
Only advantages. Fascinating, right?
According to Valérie Viale, Head of Product Management at travel technology company Amadeus, these are the biggest changes in years. Of course, this has nothing to do with more comprehensive surveillance: "The last major change was the introduction of e-ticketing in the early 2000s," she told The Times.
Coincidentally, this happened after 9/11. Even then, airports became the spearhead of the new surveillance state in the fight against terror. Now this surveillance state is going digital all over again. Airports are once again the pioneers.
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