Czech police forced to turn off facial recognition cameras at the Prague airport
18 comments
·November 1, 2025FridayoLeary
SoftTalker
Last time I came into the USA from Europe they never checked my passport. They know who is on each arriving flight and match faces to passport records.
hacka22
this is great news and I wonder if and how this has impact on other European deployments
analog8374
We're preferring ignorance to knowledge here because we don't trust the government. Which is weird.
idle_zealot
It's not just the government. Generally I think knowledge is very important, but as with any important value it butts up against other rights and values. In this case, the individual right to privacy ought to win out against a company or government's or neighbor's right to knowledge. Privacy, like speech, is one of those critically important rights that when violated en masse leads to catastrophic harm; in privacy's case that's through chilling effects, enabling more effective targeted enforcement of laws, and effective targeted propaganda campaigns. A lack of privacy reinforces and exaggerates any existing power structures and imbalances. For an authoritarian, this is fantastic. If you believe in democracy or egalitarianism it should be terrifying.
Alupis
Is being in an airport actually considered private?
It's a public space, and you must show ID to gain access to the secured area. Additionally, you are subjected to baggage and carry-on inspection, as well as body inspection and metal detection, etc. There are cameras everywhere, monitoring and recording everything.
Presumably this system was designed to recognize individuals that may be traveling under false-identities, and are known "bad guys" - otherwise the nation-state security apparatus would have known about the attempted air travel well in advance.
The ability to abuse this system may be real, but it seems much more likely your rights would be violated well before you reached any facial recognition systems.
viraptor
Generally we also don't trust the technology, not just the government. Unless you're up for being detained just because you look quite like some wanted person. Given enough samples, there is some guaranteed overlap.
jbv027
Also technology provider is important. I doubt that government is able to self host face recognition. So the most common implementation would be microsoft (or any big corp good at lobbying in this part of the world) owning technology and data to preserve their vendor lock in. So there is high probability that those data will be used for other purposes (you can easily imagine standard corporate excuses if someone finds out).
themafia
If you don't trust the source how can you call what you received "knowledge?" Why is that weird?
aerostable_slug
Sure to result in a surge of ticket sales as clandestine intelligence operatives pivot to Czechia as their flight hub of choice. /s
octoberfranklin
Nah, they still have Vienna.
But seriously I don't think you can fly direct from the US to Prague. You're gonna get face-scanned in Heathrow or some other transit airport.
whatpeoplewant
[flagged]
Ziomislaw
and who would verify that the system had not been modified and is being used in accordance with the law? pinky promise is not enough.
police forces in most (EU but not only) countries had proven multiple times that they think the law does not apply to them. they will always abuse such systems.
ewuhic
This account posts AI slop, please flag it.
I assumed that every airport does it as a matter of policy. A border guard in the UK told me the reason they don't bother checking your passport when you leave is because they check your face on camera.
In this case it seems like a legitimate use of facial recognition: catching criminals. The story is of interest to me because i've been through the airport many times. I guess they have a picture of me.
ot but in many European airports i've been to they have those clunky face scanning machines and after that proper passport controls. I've discovered that in some places i can skip them and get my passport stamped with no issues.