The Privacy Guarantor has arranged the temporary suspension of the biometric boarding service based on facial recognition in Italian airports, concerning the airports of Milan Linate and Rome Fiumicino. The provision, adopted on 11 September 2025 against joint stock companies Sea airport exercises, concerns the specific technological solution used for the so -called Face Boarding and does not constitute a general ban on the use of facial recognition at airports.
How the Face Boarding worked
The service, active in Milan Linate already during the period 2019-2020 in the experimental phase with Ita Airways and Scandinavian Airlines, allowed to complete all flight operations, from check-in to boarding, without showing identity documents. Rome Fiumicino had adopted a similar solution in 2024, known as You Board. The initiative was on a voluntary basis: interested passengers recorded their biometric data through a dedicated portal, with registration valid for a year.
The reasons for the stop and the clarifications of the Guarantor
The Privacy Guarantor wanted to clarify through a press release that the provision does not block technological innovation, provided that the European rules on the protection of personal data are respected. The Guarantor found that the solution adopted by Sea was incompatible with the current European discipline, as already indicated by the European Committee for data protection in the opinion of 23 May 2024. Already from December 2024, the authority had informed Sea of incompatibility, inviting the company to evaluate compatible alternative solutions.
Alternative and future solutions of facial recognition
According to the Guarantor, facial recognition remains allowed at airports, on condition of adopting technologies other than those used by Sea, able to guarantee a correct balance between simplification of boarding operations and protection of personal data, in particular of biometric data. The compatible solutions are those indicated by the opinion of the European Committee, which defines the minimum requirements to protect travelers.
The temporary suspension of Face Boarding does not therefore mean the end of facial recognition in Italian airports. The goal is to ensure that technological innovation is applied in full compliance with European privacy and regulations. Passengers will have to use traditional check-in and boarding methods until compliance solutions are implemented, while guaranteeing efficiency and safety in the travel process.
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