1 of every 7 travelers has recently missed a flight because of long security lines, according to forbes.com. The airline ‘Delta’ has come up with a possible solution for these long and stressful lines. 

Facial recognition is being used at Delta’s airport ID scanners to go faster than the previous process. They claim the face ID picture used will be immediately destroyed in order to maintain the person’s privacy. With the added convenience, passengers should be able to get through the airport lines much faster than before. But how trustworthy is this new method?

“Nothing on the internet is ever deleted,” Sophomore at Lakeridge High School Ava Branch said.

As Branch points out, this raises a lot of questions about how much it is trespassing our privacy boundaries. This idea of making the long lines become shorter seems so ideal, and yet is it worth it? Can we really trust them to make sure our privacy is protected, or is it too much of an invasion of privacy?

There are definitely good and bad factors to this so-called solution. People have different minds and opinions about it, but is there even a right answer?

“I think that it’s a little bit of an invasion.” Emilie Driscoll, a Freshman at LHS said. “…Maybe I would just fly another airline.” 

However, if we forgot about the fact that Delta would have access to everyone’s personal information, there would be positives of the new process. Obviously, the lines at airports would be much smaller, as well as being quicker and stress free.

“If I’m going to be civic minded and community minded, a small little facial recognition picture of me that probably will be destroyed anyway is okay,” Teacher at LHS, John Bass said.

If the claim that the face id picture used is destroyed is true, then there is certainly less to worry about, and more positive factors than negative. It could be worth it for that added relief of going through lines without fearing a long wait or a missed flight

“So I want to do things even if it’s a little bit of a sacrifice, I will do things for the greater good of the community, even if it sort of affects me in a very small way,” Bass said.

A quick fix to satisfy all passengers could be simple as making it an option to use the face id technology. If some people wanted to use it, then they can, and it would make the lines that much faster. If others do not trust it, and don’t want to use it, then they don’t need to.

“But if it’s completely optional, then I think that’s okay,” Driscoll said, “because you only have to participate in it if you want to.”

Who knows if this new technology will venture into other airlines. Hopefully they give you an option to not use it. Maybe only 1 of every 30 travelers will miss their flight now.