The TSA's initial rollout covered 16 airports of various sizes across the country, including Baltimore; Boston; Dallas; Detroit; Orlando, Florida; Phoenix; Salt Lake City; San Jose, California; and Gulfport-Biloxi in Mississippi. States with busy international airports have continued to add the technology as the TSA's pilot expands.

While the system aims to speed up the security line and limit physical contact with TSA screeners, passenger reaction is mixed. Some travelers flying through Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas in February 2020 appreciated the convenience, but others were concerned about privacy and the use of their facial images.

Airports using the technology in Iowa include:

Des Moines International Airport
(Airport code: DSM; located in Des Moines)

Privacy issues are a concern for many when it comes to facial recognition technology, particularly if passengers' biometrics are used for profiling or surveillance without their knowledge.

Passengers may opt out of the system and go through a manual screening. However, they may encounter some hassles, as Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley did when he declined to use the screening technology at Reagan National in 2023. Agents warned that a manual process would cause delays (it didn't), but those warnings could coerce others into using the system. The TSA says it does not store the images it takes nor use the technology to profile or conduct passenger surveillance. Still, CBS News has reported that some information is saved for up to two years to help evaluate the technology.

Critics of facial recognition biometrics also cite racial bias. Research has shown that facial recognition algorithms are prone to error when trying to identify Black people—especially women with darker skin, who were 34% more likely to be inaccurately identified than men with lighter skin, according to Harvard University.

The TSA boasts a 99% success rate with its facial biometrics system and says the false negative rate is 3% or less. Still, 2.9 million passengers flying in the U.S. daily could cause headaches for tens of thousands of travelers upon full implementation.

Meanwhile, as the TSA continues to test, evaluate, and implement facial recognition technology, it also plans to test iris scanning as a means of identity verification.

This story features data reporting by Elena Cox, writing by Jill Jaracz, and is part of a series utilizing data automation across 47 states.