<https://www.losangelesblade.com/2021/01/04/cbps-plan-to-expand-face-surveill...> [...] U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has proposed a new rule that would massively expand the use of face surveillance at the border, further entrenching a dystopian surveillance infrastructure that threatens our rights to privacy and anonymity, and disproportionately harms people of color and immigrants. Today, we and a diverse group of rights organizations are calling on <https://www.aclu.org/comment-civil-society-organizations-opposition-cbp-nprm...> the government to withdraw its plans. According to a notice <https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/11/19/2020-24707/collection-o...> published in November, CBP plans to collect the faceprint of virtually every non-U.S. citizen who enters or exits the U.S., including children. The faceprints will then be stored in a government database for up to 75 years, where they may be used not only by the Department of Homeland Security, but by foreign governments and federal, state, and local law enforcement to identify individuals for a variety of purposes. CBP says it will apply a face-matching algorithm to travelers, comparing their faceprints to a gallery of other images in the government’s possession. This plan is unjustified, unnecessary, and dangerous. Unlike fingerprints and many other biometrics, faceprints can be collected covertly, at a distance, and without our consent. Once a government acquires a person’s faceprint, it creates a risk of a unique and unprecedented form of persistent surveillance, one that allows the government to identify and track people without their knowledge. Congress has not authorized the government to take such an extraordinary and unprecedented step, and the government already collects fingerprints from non-U.S. citizens entering the United States, undercutting its claims about the unique value of facial recognition for identity verification. [...]