X

TSA tests fingerprint screening for flight check-in

New biometric checkpoint screening process matches travelers' fingerprints with those already on file.

Steven Musil Night Editor / News
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. He's been hooked on tech since learning BASIC in the late '70s. When not cleaning up after his daughter and son, Steven can be found pedaling around the San Francisco Bay Area. Before joining CNET in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers.
Expertise I have more than 30 years' experience in journalism in the heart of the Silicon Valley.
Steven Musil
Biometric Hardware Firms Display Security Solutions

Biometrics may one day replace the boarding pass.

Ian Waldie / Getty Images

How would you like to chuck the boarding pass and ID flash at the airport for your fingerprint?

The Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday it's testing a new checkpoint screening technology that matches fingerprints provided at the checkpoint with those already on file for travelers enrolled in the agency's PreCheck program. The program allows low-risk travelers to go through expedited screening instead of waiting in regular security lines.

The TSA said the technology has the potential to automate the check-in process by eliminating the need to check passengers' boarding passes and identification, granting travelers access to the airport's secured area through an electronic gate.

"TSA looks at technologies and intelligence capabilities that allow us to analyze and secure the travel environment, passengers and their property," Steve Karoly of the TSA said in a statement. He's the TSA's acting assistant administrator of requirements and capabilities analysis. 

"Through these and other technology demonstrations, we are looking to reinvent and enhance security effectiveness to meet the evolving threat and ensure that passengers get to their destinations safely,"  he said.

Participation in the biometric screening process is voluntary. The program is being tested at Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport and Denver International Airport.