by Jay Stanley and Barry Steinhardt

About the authors: Jay Stanley is the privacy public education coordinator at the American Civil Liberties Union and a former analyst at Forrester Research. Barry Steinhardt is associate director of the ACLU, chair of the ACLU Cyberliberties Task Force, and cofounder of the Global Internet Liberty Campaign.

Since September 11, facial recognition systems—computer programs that analyze images of human faces gathered by video surveillance cameras—are being increasingly discussed and occasionally deployed, largely as a means for combating terrorism. They are being set up in several airports around the United States, including Logan Airport in Boston, T.F. Green Airport in Providence, Rhode Island, San Francisco International Airport, Fresno Airport in California and Palm Beach International Airport in Florida. The technology was also used at the 2001 Super Bowl, and plans...