AviationNew airport security technologies raise privacy concerns

Researchers in Northeastern University, funded by DHS’s Office of Science and Technology, are developing surveillance technologies better to help airport security officials scan passengers and luggage for contraband and suspicious behavior.

In a mock airport in an underground lab at Northeastern, researchers are developing a new way to detect explosives by using radar. In another lab, a professor and a team of students are working on a scanning system which, they hope, will speed up airport security lines. The system uses machines installed in walls or other places to scan passengers as they walk past instead of having them walk individually into a conventional scanning machine.

“The goal is to have a system that provides better scanning of individuals going through security, while at the same time making it more convenient,” said Jose Martinez Lorenzo, a professor of mechanical and industrial engineering, who is directing the project.

Another surveillance system, developed by engineering professors Octavia Camps and Mario Sznaier, detects when an individual is walking through a security exit in the wrong direction. The surveillance software has been tested since April 2014 at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Currently used at one exit, it scans roughly 50,000 people a week, and has a 99 percent detection rate with only five false alarms a week.

The New York Times reports that privacy advocates say these expensive and ambitious projects, meant to increase public safety and ease air travel delays, risk intruding on passengers’ privacy. “As we adopt new technologies to meet the constantly changing needs of our aviation infrastructure in a budget-constrained environment, these technologies must be proven to be effective, protect civil liberties, and properly balance security with passenger privacy,” said Representative Bennie Thompson (D-Mississippi), the ranking member on the House Committee on Homeland Security.

Justin Brookman, director of consumer privacy at the Center for Democracy and Technology, said new technologies could actually solve the budget issues. “These things are expensive, but it’s cheaper than paying a person to stand there,” he said. “You don’t have to pay health care benefits to a robot. There’s nothing necessarily wrong with it as long as there are controls in place so things are not abused and they don’t turn over the surveillance totally to a software program.”

Airport officials say passengers entering restricted areas through exits pose a security threat and can cost airports and airlines millions of dollars. Last year in Detroit, flights were canceled and a terminal was shut until a passenger who had entered an exit door the wrong way had been located.

“While it’s not a common occurrence, when it happens it can cause severe disruptions to air travel,” said William Young, a former Transportation Security Administration (TSA) official who worked in Cleveland during the exit door surveillance testing. “It’s a major security challenge for the TSA.” Most airports use video to track suspicious behavior, but the sheer volume of information can overwhelm security officers. It was Young who approached researchers at Northeastern to develop the software.

Another part of the surveillance system developed by Camps and Sznaier, which is known as the Video Analytic Surveillance Transition Project (VAST), using details such as size and shape as well as the texture and color of clothing, will remember the identity of a person who enters an exit the wrong way. This allows security personnel to track that person throughout the airport without having to shut down a terminal or the entire airport.

Kade Crockford, director of the Technology for Liberty project of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts is concerned about the potential widespread use of video analytics tools. “There are so many issues raised by the use of these technologies,” she said. “Will the cameras have face-recognition capabilities, able to track your every move and tap into your Social Security number and other personal information?” While advanced video software could be a valuable tool for airport security, Crockford worries that the software could be used to track people outside of airports. “What starts in the airport doesn’t stay there,” she said.

The researchers at Northeastern said they use a small amount of video data and that no personal information is gathered. “In this project we use video feeds from cameras that are already installed at the airport and used by TSA to monitor airport security in public areas,” Camps said. “No names or identities are associated at any time with the processed video.”