> Feel free to submit a photo that confuses the biometric requirements, hope you like the automated border gates rejecting your passport

Actually, that seems like a really good idea to avoid being tracked by facial recognition systems. Remove enough detail from your photo so that you can't be identified by a neural net, but can still be identified by a human?

Except, the human will just be told by the computer, "subject does not match passport photo" even though his own eyes say you match, and he'll be bound by duty to treat you as an identity theft. You think border guards are allowed to make decisions? Ha!

I forget the exact number, but the distances between n points on your face is a representation of your face. So we've reduced that to a number too.

I don't think anyone uses the photo for biometric identification. I thought those devices you look at in line simply take a photo of you on entry. In most countries you still face the customs officer who looks at you and your documents.

eGates at UK airports do programmatically allow entry based solely on a facial recognition match between the person standing at the gate and the file on their passport's chip. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

(+ run the passport through a gamut of watch lists and risk profiles)

The border agent, when handed an EU passport, does exactly the same (match the photo to the face) and nothing much more. What exactly is the problem with automating that?

A passport agent can't have virtually infinite recall of your pictures in a miriad of other unrelated locations.

Not sure about that. I certainly seen the guy in the booth looking at all those photos, at least in the early days gates were deployed.

In Australia at least they do identify you at the smart gates for immigration. The customs officer doesn't look at visas or other immigration details.

Nope. I left last week and will return on Monday and - just like entering the UK - can confirm that, while there are Customs staff hanging about to make sure nothing goes wrong, they are not individually monitoring each entry/exit.

I find it bloody marvellous. I was on the Heathrow Express literally 20 minutes after getting off the plane from Melbourne. That's how it should be.

Sorry, I meant "the smart gates are used as the only identification method". Poor wording.