TSA PreCheck Travelers Get "Touchless ID" Option

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is using facial identification to verify a passenger’s identity at its security checkpoints using the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Traveler Verification Service (TVS), which creates a secure biometric template of a passenger’s live facial image taken at the checkpoint and matches it against a gallery of templates of pre-staged photos that the passenger previously provided to the government (e.g., U.S. Passport or Visa).

Participation is optional. Passengers who have consented to participate may choose to opt-out at any time and instead go through the standard identity verification process by a Transportation Security Officer (TSO).

TSA and CBP are also allowing airport and airline partners to request the use of TVS for identity verification under an established TSA process outlined in 49 U.S.C. § 114.1. These partners purchase camera equipment in order to take photos of voluntary passengers at airport baggage drop and boarding locations for transmission to TVS, which creates biometric templates of these photos and compares them against templates of existing DHS holdings as described above.

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