Can travelers request deletion or correction of their biometric data from CBP and how?
Executive summary
Travelers can, in practice, avoid CBP’s facial-photo capture by opting out and requesting manual identity verification, and CBP says it deletes U.S. citizen photos within 12 hours; however, noncitizen biometric enrollments are retained long-term in DHS systems and the publicly available reporting does not provide a clear, specific pathway to request deletion or correction of those noncitizen records [1] [2] [3]. Civil-society litigation and advocacy groups have flagged retention and transparency concerns about alternative procedures and remedies, underscoring a gap between CBP’s operational claims and independent oversight demands [4].
1. What CBP publicly says about deletion and opt‑outs
CBP’s formal materials and rulemaking repeatedly state that photographs of U.S. citizens taken for identity verification are deleted within roughly 12 hours and that citizens who do not wish to be photographed may notify a CBP officer or airline representative and request a manual document check instead of biometric processing [1] [2] [5]. CBP also emphasizes that its cloud-based Traveler Verification Service (TVS) does not retain biographic data for travelers beyond those short operational windows for U.S. citizens and that the biometric process is meant to automate existing document checks rather than create a new surveillance program [1] [6].
2. What happens to noncitizen biometrics — retention, not deletion
By contrast, CBP and DHS rulemaking make plain that noncitizens in scope are enrolled into DHS biometric identity management systems (IDENT/other DHS holdings) and that images for noncitizens can be retained for decades under DHS records notices—up to 75 years is explicitly mentioned in agency materials [3] [7] [8]. Advocacy groups and litigation filings note shorter interim caches in some operational databases (e.g., 14 days cited for certain non‑immigrant categories) but confirm the long‑term enrollment into DHS biometric systems for “in‑scope” travelers [4].
3. Can travelers request deletion or correction — what the public record shows and doesn’t show
The reporting assembled here documents CBP’s deletion policy for U.S. citizen photos and the opt‑out/manual‑check option [1] [2], and it documents long retention for noncitizens [3] [4]. What the public materials provided do not lay out in explicit, step‑by‑step terms — and thus cannot be asserted as fact here — is a clear, published mechanism in these excerpts for a noncitizen to submit a deletion or formal correction request for biometrics already enrolled in DHS systems, or the specific administrative remedy timeline for such requests; those details are not present in the supplied sources. CBP’s general privacy pages, Federal Register rule text, and PIAs referenced establish policy and retention schedules but stop short in these excerpts of publishing a clickable form or enumerated Privacy Act/FOIA procedure for erasure/correction [3] [2] [1].
4. Conflicting narratives, oversight, and implicit agendas
CBP and DHS frame biometrics as a privacy‑conscious modernization—fast processing, short retention for citizens, technical safeguards—while stress on national security and legal mandates underpins expansion of noncitizen biometric collection [5] [6]. Civil liberties groups such as EPIC have litigated and criticized CBP for limited transparency around alternative screening procedures and long retention of non‑citizen images, arguing that these gaps raise serious privacy and accuracy concerns [4] [9]. The implicit agenda in CBP’s public messaging is to normalize biometric processing as routine travel infrastructure; the implicit agenda in advocacy reporting is to push for stronger disclosure, access, and deletion rights.
5. Practical takeaways and next steps for travelers seeking redress
Based on CBP’s stated policies, U.S. citizens who do not want their photo captured can notify a CBP officer or airline representative and be processed manually; CBP asserts those citizen photos are deleted within 12 hours [2] [1]. For noncitizens, the publicly cited retention regimes indicate long‑term enrollment in DHS biometric systems [3] [8], and the supplied reporting does not specify an accessible deletion/correction procedure for those records; therefore, anyone needing to pursue deletion or correction should consult the full DHS/CBP Privacy Impact Assessments, the DHS System of Records Notices (SORN) for the Border Crossing Information System and IDENT, and consider Privacy Act and FOIA avenues or legal counsel to formally request access, amendment, or deletion—materials not contained in the excerpts reviewed here [3] [2] [4].