Originally Posted by
guflyer
This reminds me of what happened to me at DUB. They did not give out forms to anyone and the kiosks were off. I spoke with a person and then a camera went off. He was annoyed that I did not look directly in the camera at first before taking another photo.
The thing that bothered me was that they did not describe what was happening--that they were using biometric identification, etc. It seemed like they tried to take photos in a manner discreet enough that many would likely have no idea what was happening.
Yes - it used to be that if the APCs weren't active you were "safe" (if the APCs were in use, I would use the foreign visitor lanes that did not use APC). The last three times I've re-entered the US, APCs were not in use but I noticed they were taking everyone's pictures when going through.
I now make a habit of holding my suit jacket up over most of my face when I walk up to the officer and intentionally stand far to the left (far away from the webcam). That is enough to make sure that they don't get a clean photo to add to their database. And, to the credit of the CBP (which, while I hate them, are clearly more knowledgeable and trained than the TSA), it has never resulted in me getting secondary. I politely tell them that I have no legal obligation to have my picture taken to re-enter the country, they put an exception code in the facial recognition screen, and let me pass through.
Just to alleviate any doubt that everyone is being put through facial recongition tech - I overhead one of the agents asking a superior how to bypass the facial recognition screen two weeks ago after I declined to get my picture taken.