Frank Esposito is reporting for the Poughkeepsie Journal a new MTA program to enable cameras near bridges and tunnels to recognize the faces of drivers and passengers in vehicles as they approach crossings is now in testing mode. Experts agree that the addition of facial recognition has increased the number of ways people can be tracked, and how much of the population can be surveilled. The technology joins license plate readers, already in heavy use by the MTA and New York State Police, in creating a vast surveillance network with few limits. The system is still in its testing phase at the RFK bridge, and testing at the Queens-Midtown and Brooklyn-Battery tunnels had already begun. In a later phases, testing will be conducted at the Throgs Neck and Bronx Whitestone bridges, an MTA spokesperson said. With the addition of facial recognition tracking, along with other methods like tracking cell phones, E-ZPasses and license plates, anyone driving in New York would be subject to surveillance, along with their passengers, without oversight from the courts. "These systems allow for a continuous, real-time scanning of people's identities and location tracking," said Daniel Schwarz, New York Civil Liberties Union technologist. "It really would be detrimental to our civil rights and liberties as it would continuously know where people are moving." Read the full story at lodged [dot] com.