SmartGate...a faster way to clear Customs (on trial)

[serfty]

Interesting thing happened in MEL Saturday night.

While the SmatGate equipment was there and active, there was no aisle Labelled for SmartGate. There was an Aircrew aisle and a Domestic Sticker aisle.

I walked up to the smart gate and as I neared it, a customs guy came over toward me. I think he was about to ask what I was doing when he saw me put my passport on the reader. He said "Oh, Smart gate... if it works..." and seemed quite surprised when the lights went green and the gate opened.

Maybe it's not a reliable as some had hoped.

 

[redrat]

Yup, The same thing happened to me coming in Thursday morning except this time the customs guy said it wasn't working. Thankfully they still processed me through in that line.
Phew :roll:

 

[serfty]

Well, customs seem to be going ahead with SmartGate; came thru MEL last night and there are now four aisles/queues to the left of the general area: Staff, Aircrew, Domestic & Smartgate. New TV monitors over the aisles to indicate; there's a blue logo for S/G, I dont remember seeing it before.

Strolled down to the front of the empty the S/G queue, placed feet on marked stop, PP on Reader and stared at the camera. After about 20 seconds the gate opened and thru I went . Again I was watched by a interested customs staff member who seemed surprised when it opened.

The only comment I can make is that it takes some time to respond; it seems to take forever while you are standing there feeling the eyes of the customs people perusing you.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

An article in the NZ Herald (www.nzherald.co.nz) on the recent Leadership Forum commented on their wishlist.

Amongst others were (this is my wording)

- Australia allowing NZers to use the Australian queues at immigration (reciprocating NZ which allows Australians to use NZ queues at immigration here).

- easier immigration for frequent visitors of both countries (currently NZers arent allowed to use smartgate )

 

[Mal]

Well, customs seem to be going ahead with SmartGate; came thru MEL last night and there are now four aisles/queues to the left of the general area: Staff, Aircrew, Domestic & Smartgate. New TV monitors over the aisles to indicate; there's a blue logo for S/G, I dont remember seeing it before.

Strolled down to the front of the empty the S/G queue, placed feet on marked stop, PP on Reader and stared at the camera. After about 20 seconds the gate opened and thru I went . Again I was watched by a interested customs staff member who seemed surprised when it opened.

The only comment I can make is that it takes some time to respond; it seems to take forever while you are standing there feeling the eyes of the customs people perusing you.

And ditto for me coming into Syd on Sun night.

Lane was labelled as such, with 2 smart gate's - the first marked for "E-Passport holders" and the 2nd for Smartgate etc.

When I went through the smartgate (The gates did open!) it went "Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep", but still opened and let me through. I didn't remember that from last time I used it, although I could be wrong. Maybe I removed my passport too early or something, but it still recognised me!

 

[Bob]

I'll be coming back into Sydney on Sun AM with Air Canada. Does anyone know if they now have smartgate at Pier C?

 

[Mal]

I'll be coming back into Sydney on Sun AM with Air Canada. Does anyone know if they now have smartgate at Pier C?

Didn't around two months ago when I arrived in Pier C... (Apr 30 I believe)

I think that's cause the trial mainly focuses on Qantas staff & customers.

 

[kevinwong]

requires that you be .physically able to stand at a SmartGate kiosk to have your face photographed.

Does this discount people in wheelchairs? Sounds like it does lol not that its a laughing matter. I think just wrong choice of wording.

Unfortunately I think it might because the camera is calibrated for a certain height range, not 0.5m lower. Facial recognition systems are dependent on angles so a picture of a person from high up (like a wheelchair) will create a perspective distorted image and lose some data, but a future system could employ 2 cameras but I doubt they would go to the expense. Or they could just make their software more intelligent.

 

[kevinwong]

APEC Business Travellers Card

This site might interest you if you want to get through quicker:
http://www.immi.gov.au/business/apec.htm

Available to business travellers (obviously as they travel all the time) who:
hold a valid passport of a participating economy;
travel frequently to conduct trade and investment activities within the APEC region; and
has never been convicted of a criminal offence.

 

[oz_mark]

Re: APEC Business Travellers Card

This site might interest you if you want to get through quicker:
http://www.immi.gov.au/business/apec.htm

Available to business travellers (obviously as they travel all the time) who:
hold a valid passport of a participating economy;
travel frequently to conduct trade and investment activities within the APEC region; and
has never been convicted of a criminal offence.

And discussed on this very forum here:

http://www.frequentflyer.com.au/discus/viewtopic.php?t=1050

 

[JohnK]

Sorry if not the right thread.

Talking about cameras I am sure I got photographed at BKK while clearing immigration yesterday. The lady fiddled around with something that looked like a miniature camera on a stand on the desk and then I saw a red dot flashing at me.

I am not up to date with all the computer related camera equipment but has anyone seen this type of practice happen in immigration anywhere else?

 

[Mal]

Sorry if not the right thread.

Talking about cameras I am sure I got photographed at BKK while clearing immigration yesterday. The lady fiddled around with something that looked like a miniature camera on a stand on the desk and then I saw a red dot flashing at me.

I am not up to date with all the computer related camera equipment but has anyone seen this type of practice happen in immigration anywhere else?

Thai immigration takes a photo of you when you arrive with a web cam located on the desk on all immigration booths... but not the diplomatic one (which I was able to sneak through last time!).

Several countries do this. Some even take your fingerprints when you arrive...

 

[JohnK]

Thai immigration takes a photo of you when you arrive with a web cam located on the desk on all immigration booths... but not the diplomatic one (which I was able to sneak through last time!).

Several countries do this. Some even take your fingerprints when you arrive...

I didn't notice it when I arrived only when I was leaving.

So great, I now have my picture as well as passport number in some Thai database somewhere. Cannot even begin to imagine what can happen if this database fell into the wrong hands.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

US has both photo and fingerprint, and many (all?) have cctvs in the immigration hall in any case, which they can match up with who was processed by whom and when

 

[JohnK]

US has both photo and fingerprint, and many (all?) have cctvs in the immigration hall in any case, which they can match up with who was processed by whom and when

I am not worried so much about cctvs that are able to match up faces and names if it is required.

What worries me is that my passport number and photo/fingerprint is sitting in some database somewhere, without my consent, waiting for some hacker to get access to it. And I have done nothing wrong.

The whole thing reminds me of films like "Gattaca", "The Net", "1984". Aren't we allowed any anonymity at all? Must everything be recorded? Leave me in peace.....

 

[oz_mark]

US has both photo and fingerprint, and many (all?) have cctvs in the immigration hall in any case, which they can match up with who was processed by whom and when

I am not worried so much about cctvs that are able to match up faces and names if it is required.

What worries me is that my passport number and photo/fingerprint is sitting in some database somewhere, without my consent, waiting for some hacker to get access to it. And I have done nothing wrong.

The whole thing reminds me of films like "Gattaca", "The Net", "1984". Aren't we allowed any anonymity at all? Must everything be recorded? Leave me in peace.....

Immigration has always seemed like a law unto itself to me. I doubt that there are too many other places that could get away with what immigration manages to.

 

[RTWFF]

Maybe

Thai Immigration may take your photo during entry and exit. Like most things in Thailand, it's pretty much hit-and-miss. I've been through Bangkok airport more than a dozen times in the last 6 months, and it mostly never happened. The first time it did happen there were queues hours long I'd have to say, as they'd only bought enough cameras to staff 50% of their desks. Fortunately the APEC/diplomatic line wasn't too bad - 15 or 20 minutes!!

 

[Damien]

What worries me is that my passport number and photo/fingerprint is sitting in some database somewhere, without my consent, waiting for some hacker to get access to it. And I have done nothing wrong.

As you need a visa or APEC card to enter Thailand, they have your passport number and photo anyway.

 

[markis10]

What worries me is that my passport number and photo/fingerprint is sitting in some database somewhere, without my consent, waiting for some hacker to get access to it. And I have done nothing wrong.

As you need a visa or APEC card to enter Thailand, they have your passport number and photo anyway.

You dont need a visa to visit Thailand as an Australian

 

[Damien]

What worries me is that my passport number and photo/fingerprint is sitting in some database somewhere, without my consent, waiting for some hacker to get access to it. And I have done nothing wrong.

As you need a visa or APEC card to enter Thailand, they have your passport number and photo anyway.

You dont need a visa to visit Thailand as an Australian

You are correct. My mistake.