The US is by no means the home or even a meaningful hub of soccer. And – the country’s at the same time working hard on “raising” its biometric mass surveillance profile.
These two seemingly unrelated facts are set to converge since the US has been allowed to host the 2026 FIFA (football) World Cup. And it looks like biometric scanning will flourish during the almost month-long event involving millions of fans.
Regardless of the status of football (soccer) in the US, in much of the rest of the world, it is by far the most important and popular sport, and so a great number of people from other countries are expected to travel there to support their national teams.
What those fans can expect, according to reports, are the rules that are steadily taking root at US sports venues, revolving around biometric “security technology.”
The passion for football is only increasing: South America’s top-tier continental competition, Copa America, just recently reported 11 percent more “traveling fans” – and the World Cup is expected to reflect much the same trend.
Related: The TSA, Facial Recognition In Airports, and Your Rights
What opponents of biometric surveillance see as by and large unchecked, extremely privacy-invasive, and technically flawed practice, is something those promoting it like to call “enhanced security and operational efficiency.”
A lot of things get passed off as “media literacy” these days – so maybe it’s time to start to rethink what “tech literacy” means. But this time for real: things like what real-time biometric scanning and surveillance really mean to an individual.
Not, “learn to use Microsoft Office” – and call that “tech literacy.”
The time for that effort seems to be right, given that real-time facial recognition, fingerprint scanning, etc, is a policy that’s reportedly now producing “high public acceptance” – at least in the US.
There, it’s been spreading, in airports as well as sports venues, and if some surveys are to be believed, travelers are blissfully enjoying trading their core privacy for “convenience.”
Four out of five do – that’s what a US Travel and Ipsos poll, asking if US travelers supported TSA (biometric) checkpoints, said.
But football fans from around the world might be wise to learn more about the technology and how it may affect their lives before they book that 2026 trip to the USA.
