The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is overseeing seaports across America being equipped like airports with high-tech face recognition systems, imposing neccessary checks on passengers as they immediately debark from a cruise vessel.
The latest installation affects Carnival Cruise Line who announced a continuing partnership with the CBP in driving the expansion of facial biometrics and minimising queues for manual seaport checks. Modernising efforts to travel journeys for added seamlessness and safety now automatically include leveraging biometric technology which allows accurate identities to be matched against passport or visa photos held in databases.
Three million Carnival customers will be required to hand over their biometrics to proceed through the terminal. Facial biometrics in the cruise environment will strengthen CBP’s enforcement capabilities at several of the nation’s cruise ports while also enhancing the customer experience.
Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line said: “Expanding this technology at our U.S. homeports ensures we’re doing everything we can to make the debarkation process as simple as possible for our guests”.
“Thanks to our partnership with CBP, these technology solutions make the process more efficient, while giving guests a sense of safety and security, knowing their information is protected.”
Across the Carnival chain 9 out of 14 seaports are enabling this technology to enhance the debarkation process including at at Miami, Port Canaveral, Tampa, New York, Baltimore, Mobile, Galveston, Jacksonville and Long Beach.
U.S. travellers can opt out of biometric inspection and request a simple manual procedure check from a CBP officer that will valid their journey.
