6 ms·

They delete the photo after 12 hours, but probably not the measurements for recognition.

pwg 7y ago
Be mindful that "delete" does not necessarily equate to "shred" [1]. There is no information available to determine if their use of "delete" means "set a Boolean flag that means 'deleted' to true" vs. "literally destroy the data so it can never be recovered" (the 'shred' [1] method). 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shred_(Unix) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shred_(Unix)
samfriedman 7y ago
I wonder if an FOIA request could reveal what metrics/data are actually being stored?
samschooler 7y ago
I'm always wary about this; when companies say they delete the bio-metric photos. They may delete the photos (even if they actually shred the photos), but they are still training a bio-metric model to better identify you before the photos are deleted. > Biometric Templates: CBP creates biometric templates of historical photos and new photos for matching and storage. Biometric templates are strings of multiple numbers representing images that can be matched against other templates that represent facial images. These templates are irreversible and cannot be reverse-engineered by anyone outside of CBP to reconstruct the photo, meaning that these photographs are not recognizable outside of the TVS system. So even if no single photo of you is on their severs, they still have a fingerprint of your face that can positively identify you. https://www.cbp.gov/travel/biometrics/biometric-exit-faqs https://www.cbp.gov/travel/biometrics/biometric-exit-faqs
- btown 7y ago
  > cannot be reverse-engineered by anyone outside of CBP to reconstruct the photo Is this really true with GANs these days? Not that this was meant to be a technical statement of course... but I'd imagine you could train a network to create a photo that activates a given template?
  - samschooler 7y ago
    I would assume it is using some sort of public-private key encryption to generate the fingerprints. I say this because they say "anyone outside of CBP." So with the proper key, and fingerprint, you can probably reconstruct a photo, or some sort of deepmind type image.
JohnFen 7y ago
> They delete the photo after 12 hours The claim they do this. Who knows if they really do?

pwg 7y ago

Be mindful that "delete" does not necessarily equate to "shred" [1]. There is no information available to determine if their use of "delete" means "set a Boolean flag that means 'deleted' to true" vs. "literally destroy the data so it can never be recovered" (the 'shred' [1] method). 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shred_(Unix) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shred_(Unix)

samfriedman 7y ago

I wonder if an FOIA request could reveal what metrics/data are actually being stored?

samschooler 7y ago

I'm always wary about this; when companies say they delete the bio-metric photos. They may delete the photos (even if they actually shred the photos), but they are still training a bio-metric model to better identify you before the photos are deleted. > Biometric Templates: CBP creates biometric templates of historical photos and new photos for matching and storage. Biometric templates are strings of multiple numbers representing images that can be matched against other templates that represent facial images. These templates are irreversible and cannot be reverse-engineered by anyone outside of CBP to reconstruct the photo, meaning that these photographs are not recognizable outside of the TVS system. So even if no single photo of you is on their severs, they still have a fingerprint of your face that can positively identify you. https://www.cbp.gov/travel/biometrics/biometric-exit-faqs https://www.cbp.gov/travel/biometrics/biometric-exit-faqs

btown 7y ago
> cannot be reverse-engineered by anyone outside of CBP to reconstruct the photo Is this really true with GANs these days? Not that this was meant to be a technical statement of course... but I'd imagine you could train a network to create a photo that activates a given template?
- samschooler 7y ago
  I would assume it is using some sort of public-private key encryption to generate the fingerprints. I say this because they say "anyone outside of CBP." So with the proper key, and fingerprint, you can probably reconstruct a photo, or some sort of deepmind type image.

JohnFen 7y ago

> They delete the photo after 12 hours The claim they do this. Who knows if they really do?