Air Travel Set for Biggest Overhaul in 50 Years With UN-Backed Digital Credentials (theguardian.com)
- Reference: 0177004323
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/04/11/2158204/air-travel-set-for-biggest-overhaul-in-50-years-with-un-backed-digital-credentials
- Source link: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/11/boarding-passes-and-check-in-to-be-scrapped-in-air-travel-shake-up-plans
The system will dynamically update "journey passes" for flight changes and delays, potentially streamlining connections. "The last upgrade of great scale was the adoption of e-ticketing in the early 2000s," said Valerie Viale from travel technology company Amadeus, who noted passenger data will be deleted within 15 seconds at each checkpoint to address privacy concerns.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/apr/11/boarding-passes-and-check-in-to-be-scrapped-in-air-travel-shake-up-plans
In three years... (Score:2)
Hardly anyone will be traveling by air anyway.
Re: (Score:3)
Indeed. By then, the Hyperloop will have reached mainstream use. Huzzah!
Re: (Score:2)
Even if it were to come to fruition, the government would still impose the same shitty travel regulations on it as well. This naively Orwellian shit won't work out as well as anticipated either though. The people proposing this should be kicked in the dick (or if lacking one, punted in the appropriate oriface) in public for even suggesting this.
Re: In three years... (Score:2)
What? How will they travel? And why would they stop?
Re: (Score:3)
> Hardly anyone will be traveling by air anyway.
Unless the tariffs are still in place, then it'll be *way* cheaper to fly half way around the world to India or China, buy an iPhone there and smuggle it back into the U.S. up your butt -- like [1]Mega Seeds [fandom.com]. iPhone mules will be ranked by how many they can smuggle at once (and chargers will, of course, be extra).
[1] https://rickandmorty.fandom.com/wiki/Mega_Seeds
Yea, right. (Score:4, Insightful)
Data at each checkpoint deleted within 15 seconds....bullshit. Everything will be logged and used to build a profile of your movements. If it doesn't do it at the get-go, some incident will happen that will be used to justify the change.
Re: (Score:2)
Data at each checkpoint deleted within 15 seconds....bullshit.
I believe it. What good does it do to have the records spread across checkpoints all over the world? They'll keep all the records at the central scrutinizer.
Re: (Score:2)
That gives the Belarusian malware on your phone 14 seconds to transmit your personal info to Russia.
Wonderful (Score:3)
> Passengers will store passport data on their phones and use facial recognition to move through airports, while airlines will automatically detect arrivals via biometric scanning.
So you'll have to have a smart phone to fly, that U.S. Border Control can search (or seize) for whatever reason, and surrender biometric/facial data and have even less privacy -- which, yes, I understand is reduced in this setting anyway.
> ... passenger data will be deleted within 15 seconds at each checkpoint to address privacy concerns.
Uh huh, sure.
Of all my travel issues (Score:5, Insightful)
Of all my travel issues, boarding passes have never been one.
Re:Of all my travel issues (Score:4, Insightful)
> Of all my travel issues, boarding passes have never been one.
This, of course, isn't about you, or us ...
Re: (Score:2)
No ruling class policy ever is about my benefit anymore. I'm not sure that it ever was, and if so, when that ended. My perspective is that society has already collapsed.
would-be dicators everywhere... (Score:5, Interesting)
including the sort who regularly attend the UN, all dream of the day when everybody on the planet will have to always carry a digital tracking device (cell phone with GPS and apps) which will be tied to a digital wallet, digital ID, and digital citizenship and travel documents. This will make ANYBODY trackable, oppressable, silenceable, cancelable, suppressable, etc.
Haven't been a "good boy" (in the view of your local dictator), well then no food, clothing, shelter, travel, lawyer, medical care, etc for you (your money instantly made worthless with a keystroke) and your identity erased (your passport and ID voided with a keystroke) and your ability to go anywhere eliminated.
This is a step into the darkest future humanity could ever imagine. People need to cling to, and demand their governments support, PAPER documents and anonymous untraceable PAPER and COIN money. It's fine to enable people to CHOOSE to have images of their documents in their phones and have authorities offer people the OPTION to show their paper that way when traveling etc, and fine to enable people to CHOOSE to have and use credit/debit cards and the OPTION to pay using them, but for basic human freedom to continue to exist, the all-digital push must be squelched.
Re:would-be dicators everywhere... (Score:5, Interesting)
Wooo.. hate to break it to you but I just got off the other discussion thread about Microsoft Recall, the other article about Actuarial Psychology AKA "PreCrime Unit" from Minority Report (in the UK) and the use of facial recognition at airports, malls, every commercial building, Walmart, if you want to use the elevator at the hotel at times square, crossing the border, so, if you sucessfully avoid one camera, you're going to be caught on 100 others. You're not wrong, you're just not realistic about where we are right now or how humanity is destined to revert to Feudalism... .. oh... UK....China...
Re: (Score:2)
> Haven't been a "good boy" (in the view of your local dictator), well then no food, clothing, shelter, travel, lawyer, medical care, etc for you (your money instantly made worthless with a keystroke) and your identity erased (your passport and ID voided with a keystroke) and your ability to go anywhere eliminated.
To be fair they can (and do) do such things even if you don't own a cell phone.
Re: (Score:2)
They can invalidate your cash?
Re: (Score:2)
You should watch the British TV series "1990" [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] - "The state can also declare a person to be a "non-citizen" which denies them an entitlement to consumer goods, accommodation or food.". Season 1 final episode "Non-Citizen" had the protagonist (a journalist) canceled this way. Very illustrative.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1990_(TV_series)
Manifesto destiny (Score:2)
Ha, I just posted this the other day: This is exactly what Ted "Unabomber" Kaczynski railed against in his manifesto, which I read upon his death. He said we lose our freedom of choice when that tech takes over because eventually one isn't allowed to NOT have it and/or be adversely affected by it.
I thought it said UK at first (Score:2)
That at least would have been interesting but the UN is a toothless hag well past her time with no legal say on anything important.
The real solution (Score:4, Interesting)
Is to allow passengers to buy tickets without providing their name. I should be allowed to buy a plane ticket anonymously just like when I buy grocery or food at the restaurant. Only airport security / customs should have my passeport and my real name. Airlines shouldn't have access to that information, and this way I should be allowed to sell my plane ticket to anybody else if I want to. Just like I am allowed to resell my phone or my bus ticket.
Re:The real solution (Score:4, Informative)
Airlines ask for your personal and passport information for multiple reasons:
- They want to make sure that you have the right to travel to your destination. If you cannot enter the country of your destination, it is on them to return you to your origin and that costs money so that they want to avoid this situation by checking your elligibility upfront.
- Similarly, they want to check your details against any no-fly lists, including airline-specific ban lists if you misbehaved in the past.
- Many countries require advanced passanger information to be submitted by the airline. This is to screen incoming passangers for offences, connections to criminal acvitiy, prior convictions or simply being a person of interest for any reason.
Re: (Score:2)
-In case of an accident, they need to be able to identify the deceased/missing.
Re: (Score:2)
> They want to make sure that you have the right to travel to your destination. If you cannot enter the country of your destination, it is on them to return you to your origin
Nope. They drop you off and you're on your own. Heck, even with valid credentials, the destination country can still reject you. Even if I buy your argument that they want to verify that you're allowed to enter the destination country, they can ask you to show credentials just before you board the plane. No need for them to store *any* information about you.
Re: (Score:1)
That's how it used to be.
Then, assholes.
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. Stroy of the human races since forever: Too many assholes. And it reauitres only a relatively small number of them (and a lot of clueless sheep) to mess things up.
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The surveillance-fascists do not want that. Even train travel in Europe gets more difficult if you do not want to provide your identity. The airlines go along with this, because it allows them to sell some extra tickets.
You just need a second burner phone ... (Score:1)
> So you'll have to have a smart phone to fly, that U.S. Border Control can search (or seize) for whatever reason, and surrender biometric/facial data and have even less privacy -- which, yes, I understand is reduced in this setting anyway.
No. You just need a second burner phone, One for whoever you are cheating with. And a second for customs.
Which is sort of inline with computer security. You don't travel with your real work/personal computer. You have something recently wiped with only the info you need. Maybe just a Chromebook you log into the "border patrol" account. Sort of the same thing with the phone.
Bad news for the trade in market.
Re: (Score:1)
I've never had my phone or computer searched by a border patrol and neither have you.
Re: (Score:1)
> I've never had my phone or computer searched by a border patrol and neither have you.
I've been ordered to pull out my laptop and turn it on. I can't remember if they made me log in, or just wanted to see "something" displayed on the screen.
My phone used to be carried in checked luggage, turned off, so I don't know if that was searched. Now it's frowned upon to put anything with a battery in your checked luggage, so if you have a phone, it *must* be carried with you. Cellular roaming costs a fortune with my provider, so it's usually easier to just buy a cheap dumbphone when I land, especial
Re: (Score:2)
I've been ordered to pull out my laptop and turn it on. I can't remember if they made me log in, or just wanted to see "something" displayed on the screen.
Because everyone knows [1]you can't pack a working computer with C4 [wikipedia.org].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Lebanon_electronic_device_attacks
Re: (Score:2)
Then you, he, and I are all lucky, white, or both. Many people, including citizens get their phones searched at the US border. It's well documented. The Canadian government recently advised Canadians that searches of phones at the border is on the increase. Interestingly I don't think US border agents can legally search phones at airports in Canada, although I'm sure they can ask, and can deny entrance to anyone who says no.
Re: (Score:1)
> I've never had my phone or computer searched by a border patrol and neither have you.
True, but that is because my employer instructed me not to take my work laptop on an international flight.
What if you don't have a phone (Score:1)
Is a phone mandatory to take a flight? Is that the big plan?
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Sounds like it. One tracking and listening device per person. I cannot see how this can be brought into alignment with EU law though. They will probably have to keep a paper-option for the time being.
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> Is a phone mandatory to take a flight? Is that the big plan?
It's also lucky their batteries never go flat, and that international data roaming is always so easy! /s
Every flight I've boarded, the paper boarding passes scan first time. The people trying to display the pass on their phone seem to have a lot more trouble - you see them waving their phone under the scanner, turning it around, wiping the screen etc.
The carbon footprint of a boarding pass is peanuts compared to the fuel burned by the plane. "Paper boarding passes" is not a real problem that needs solving,
Re: (Score:2)
Joke's on them because my phone uses lithium batteries, which they've banned.
Sounds very fragile (Score:2)
Yes, I get it, it saves a few cents per passenger. But it makes the whole so much more fragile and dependent on complex technology. Not a good idea at all. Yes, eventually,t his will be the way to go, but this move is several decades premature. I mean,w e do not even have very high reliability phones or secure phones at this time. And they want the whole system to rely on these? Bad idea.
Re: (Score:2)
Don't worry, their technology infrastructure is protected by CrowdStrike.
Re: (Score:2)
Fortunately, my phone is not. Nothing ebodies "insecuriety by security products" as well as CrowdStrike does. Did teach me a lesson on hos abysmally dysfunctional organizations can get though. After that incident, some things in the world and in human hostry make more sense to me. I did adjust my lower bar for human competence when acting in organizations quite a bit downward as a result.
Been to a concert lately? (Score:2)
Or a sporting event? You might be able to still use paper tickets for some venues, but most have been using electronic tickets for quite some time. On the bright side this has massively cut down on ticket fraud, which on the surface seems like a great idea for air travel too. Personally I think this is probably pretty low on the list of personal freedom hills to die on.
Nope (Score:2)
> "Passengers will store passport data on their phones and use facial recognition to move through airports, while airlines will automatically detect arrivals via biometric scanning."
No thanks
> "who noted passenger data will be deleted within 15 seconds at each checkpoint to address privacy concerns."
Yeah, right
It's the UN and the start of a global digital ID (Score:2)
The UN and the elites want all of the minions using a CCP type digital ID and then onto CBDCs.
Big Brother Keeps Us Safe (Score:2)
Thanks for Big Brother, we won't have to sit next to anyone accused for terrorism.
But... (Score:2)
What if you don't have a mobile phone? I know it's pretty rare nowadays, but I know two people who don't.
Meanwhile in reality (Score:2)
The TSA can't even anticipate people who have pre-booked tickets arriving at the airport to join their flights, as witnessed by the people they employ to inform passengers that it is the passengers' fault there is a huge queue.
Phones mandatory? (Score:2, Interesting)
Do not want!
I always print boarding passes. I don't store sensitive data on my phone. It has no idea I have a bank account, for example.
And what about children? A kid who's too young for a phone can scan a boarding pass now.
will all airports have free WIFI? will this app be (Score:3)
will all airports have free WIFI? will this app be 100% off line?