Originally Posted by
Aussienarelle
I may be missing something but aren't the biometrics from the passport already used for checkin with United?
I prefer the biometric usage for Global Entry and CLEAR so no issues personally with the same at the gate.
Is it certain that the biometrics originated from the passport used at check-in for that flight? (It might be the case — I don't know the answer.) And are they retained for some period afterward or used only for that flight? (Another case of I simply don't know.)
I share some of others' discomfort with these, mainly because I don't know where the information they're using comes from and where it goes once they've used it. The notices that I've seen at the gate aren't very detailed or specific about that.
One thing I have observed is that when a flight is fairly full, partway through boarding the gate agents might get fed up with how long the biometrics are taking and switch over to BP scanning. So out of the handful of times I've encountered the biometric scanners, I have wound up avoiding them sometimes by boarding late. However, I have no idea if this does anything to limit sharing of whatever biometric data they have.
All of that is to say that I think the main source of creepiness is lack of explanation about how I am being recognised by the machine, i.e. where did they get my photo and what do they do with my photo after scanning me.