Just three days after introducing the program, customs agents at Dulles Airport were able to use facial recognition software to catch someone using a fake passport.

Facial recognition scanners at Dulles Airport caught a traveler trying to enter the United States using someone else’s passport. This is said to be the first time the technology has been successfully used to detect a fraudulent entry like this.

Customs and Border Patrol announced that their agents at Dulles caught a 26-year-old Congolese man trying to enter the United States using a fraudulent French passport. The new technology was only in place at the airport for three days before it got its first hit.

When fully implemented, this new program will be in all airports and points of entry. Visitors and Americans alike will have their passports scanned and computer software will compare their passport photo against their own faces. If the two don’t match, or the passport picture doesn’t match photographs already in government databases, the individual will be pulled aside for additional questioning.

The system is not foolproof. It is difficult, for example, for the system to always account for age or weight gain. Considering how long passports are good for, it is not uncommon for travelers in their late teens and 20s to use a passport they were issued as a child. Anytime the system flags a traveler, that person is pulled aside for additional screening.

In this particular instance at Dulles, the Congolese man’s passport photo did not match the photo that the U.S. government had for that individual. The man was pulled aside for additional questioning, and agents noticed he was “visibly nervous.” Their search uncovered his legitimate Congolese identification card proving he was not who he was claiming to be.

This technology has already been rolled out in 14 airports this summer. While it is currently only limited to customs checkpoints at international airports, there is a pilot program being rolled out in New York’s JFK airport where the facial recognition system would be used to scan domestic travelers in line at Transportation Security Administration checkpoints.

In just the past year, more and more police departments from across the country have introduced facial recognition software to identify criminals, with some high profile successes. When the Capitol Gazette shooter was arrested, he refused to cooperate with Maryland police. He wouldn't even tell them his name. In order to figure out who he was, officers turned to facial recognition to identify the shooter.

Not everyone is excited about the prospect of more facial recognition software in the hands of government agencies. The American Civil Liberties Union recently performed a test where they uploaded a photograph of every member of Congress into Amazon's Rekognition facial recognition software. The system returned incorrect results 28 times, identifying congressmen and senators instead as convicted felons who looked similar to them. Activists worry that this technology, with such a high propensity for delivering false-positives, is an invasion of privacy that could be misused to harass innocent people. 

A decade ago, this was science fiction. Today, the ACLU was able to perform its test for $12.33. The fear is that law enforcement agencies will not be able to resist such an inexpensive, powerful tool.

What do you think? Do you agree with the government using facial recognition software like this? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below!