Recently traveled abroad and was shocked at how dystopian moving through borders is anymore. Scans after scans of passports, fingerprinting, face scans, questions about intentions for visiting, paperwork, cameras throughout airports that are surely doing untold amounts of biometric analysis with some bullshit AI…in some of these places you get laughed at if you ask about opting out. It almost isn’t worth it.
Japan. It went full 1984.
Ah that explains it. They have their own way of doing things over there. Thanks for sharing your experience all the same, it is good to know.
You are never going to cross a border anonymously. The extra checks are to prevent people crossing borders under a false identity. If you are travelling under your own identity, then you are no less private than you ever were. They’re just taking extra precautions to prevent people from using false identities.
I disagree. I had to scan my passport 3 times in the same room before I could exit it. Shit is insane. I’ve traveled quite a bit and never experienced such things.
Did you consider your privacy invaded any more after the third time than the first?
The fun part is that you don’t have to do all that stuff if you have a long term visa.
Interesting, I didn’t have this experience a couple of years ago. I wonder if they’ve just upped it to try and “automate” things more with the crazy amount of tourism they’re suddenly getting. Also I’d be curious on which airport you went to, Haneda or Narita?
If the scans and such were in the states, I’ve requested opting out and no one really cared, they just said okay. Funny enough, it actually made me go through quicker than it was taking everyone who did the face scans, contradicting the sign claiming it’s quicker.