After three reported incidents over the past year where CLEAR allowed passengers to reach airport security checkpoints without having their identities verified, there was talk of everyone going through CLEAR also having their IDs checked by TSA. That’s been put off.
- The point of having identity verified is so that passengers can be checked against government watch lists
- Those lists are flawed and full of holes, pre-crime profiling where names are added by mistake or by government agents acting in retribution for unrelated matters
The TSA screws up its ID checks, and tens of thousands of agency employees have been accused of misconduct. Yet it’s CLEAR that decisively fired the employees and their managers who screwed up identity verification in just a handful of cases.
So why is CLEAR getting so much attention, when we regularly abide by poor performance at TSA itself, where its own inspector general has found on multiple occasions that screeners are unlikely to detect contraband going through the checkpoint?
Politico reports on lobbying by a competing government vendor, French-based Idemia which:
- makes the machines TSA uses to verify ID
- signs people up for PreCheck
Idemia doesn’t want people skipping TSA ID checks! And CLEAR recently won a contract to onboard as a provider of PreCheck signups. According to Idemia Vice President Lisa Shoemaker,
We wholeheartedly believe that every passenger should have their identification verified at the checkpoint with a [TSA agent].
CLEAR is part-owned by Delta and United. And American Airlines has joined the fight against clear. (They have long blocked CLEAR from setting up in terminals they control.)
According to an industry official, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about matters before Congress, IDEMIA and American Airlines recently pitched Senate Appropriations Committee aides on language, seen by POLITICO, that would have required all travelers to submit to TSA ID checks.
…The final language in the Senate bill to fund the Homeland Security Department during the next fiscal year didn’t go quite as far as IDEMIA and American wanted. Instead the bill, released late last month, “strongly encourages” TSA to verify the IDs of all passengers “including passengers enrolled in and escorted by [Registered Traveler] service providers” — in other words, CLEAR.
Politico calls the lobbying fight between CLEAR and Idemia a “power struggle.” Ex-House Homeland Security Committee ranking member John Katko is lobbying for Idemia. Former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson lobbies for CLEAR. The narrative you hear is rarely the full story in Washington.
I used to be so proud of America for not having e a federal level internal police department like so many other countries. (The FBI has limited jurisdiction.) No more. Calling the good old USA by the fascist-sounding term “homeland” guaranteed that post-9/11 any excuse would do for inefficient but lucrative contracts across a whole spectrum of activities from pointless wars based on lies to arm twisting potential neighborhood snitches. Money and power are the goals and the foundations of this country be damned, because no matter who is in power the self-sustaining bureaucracy marches on . This article is just another example of a system that will continue until it collapses under its own weight.
It’s been said, regardless of who is in the White House, self-sustaining bureaucracy marches on. It basically stays the same or worse from one administration to the next. History indicates we are on borrowed time as a democratic country. Is what it is I guess.
CLEAR should be removed from all airports. It’s a disgrace that’s there’s a private shortcut that receives priority access to the taxpayer and air travel customer funded TSA. It shouldn’t exist.
Harry it’s called the “deep state” and its live and marching on. Having said that in reading Gary’s post it simply reflects how divisive our society has become. We are split 50/50 with no even thought of “centralism”
@BOb – Should there be PreCheck as a short cut? What about premium passenger lanes? What about where terminals are controlled privately by an airline, can they control queuing within their own terminal?
I’ve always assumed that someone at TSA was getting a kickback from Clear. There would only be 2 of 4 TSA lines open causing major backups while Clear had several extra sales people out roaming the queue to sign up desperate passengers.
I hate being a conspiracy theorist but our government is training me to not trust them.
It’s interesting to note that in most European countries no one checks your ID before going into security. You scan your boarding pass at the automated gates and it lets you through. The boarding pass could belong to anyone. Usually ID is only checked at the gate before boarding. The European system seems more efficient, is it any less secure? I don’t think so?
Going back to the US system, I have Pre yet my parents who are UK citizens also got Pre when they flew with me domestically despite never flying domestically before. The whole system is flawed and it just seems who ever pays more money skips the line quicker, be that Pre, CLEAR or a premium line.
The difference in Europe is that even if you’re premium or pay for fast track you still have the same ID checks and go through exactly the same screening process, no special treatment for being Pre by not having to remove certain things from baggage etc
Sure, let fools pay money to cut the line; however, identify verification should still ultimately lie with the TSA. CLEAR had no incentive other than profit. TSA, as flawed as it may be, still has DHS OIG and congressional oversight to look into its goofs.
Gary you should do an article about the use of their technology by DHS to build automated nation wide exit controls at every airport in the US.
The perceived convenience of not having to scan your ticket and just providing your ID is being traded at the cost of national ID verification before travel is permitted. It goes well beyond checking the no fly list (which boarding pass data already did before IDEMIA)
And why does a foreign entity have the identity scans and data of every US citizen that flys (or will soon as the roll out continues)?
“IDEMIA and American Airlines recently pitched Senate Appropriations Committee aides on language, seen by POLITICO, that would have required all travelers to submit to TSA ID checks.”
Another reason for me to add to list of why I’m steadily becoming burnt out on AA. Glad they want to inflict yet more pestilence on their customers.
I don’t have a problem with TSA or CLEAR. If their employees are ex-cons and criminals, they can find their own with ease.
Clearly we have the technology available for automated ID screening- I just swiped my passport at the GE machine this morning, and just got a nod and a “Welcome home, George” from the customs official as I strolled past.
Also at this point, I’ve got no confidentiality concerns- I’d assume that the government has my face cross indexed with my ID information and travel patterns, and I would be perfectly happy to have a facial recognition kiosk, swipe my boarding pass and walk right through, similar to Singapore and Europe.
Finally, just because a French company manufactures ID kiosks, why does BallardFlyer think the French government has all the identity scans and data of every US citizen? That’s just not how it works with companies that sell such equipment- I’d expect the hardest part of winning the contract is going through multiple security audits to ensure there was no independent capturing of sensitive data. Sure, the US government has your data- but any foreign third party? Very, very doubtful.
@bob You’re both wrong and right (though pretty sure you’re ignorant). The process that CLEAR has should actually be the standard for anybody that wants it. It’s exactly what precheck should include, with enough TSA staff and machines to ensure no backups waiting in line. With biometric checks and people that actually know how to go through security, it should take like 5-10 mins max to get through. Period.
@BallardFlyer – I have done so in the past, actually
People who are against CLEAR have clearly never used it. Say what you will about fairness and paying to skip lines, fine, those are valid points.
But when I use CLEAR to go through an airport, the machine has no idea who I am, yet with or without glasses, it scans my eyes and identifies me in about three seconds. THEN the boarding pass is scanned and checked against the name of who is standing in front of the machine.
Were it done in the other order (please present boarding pass? OK you’re John… please present eyes… yeah, whatever, close enough, move along) there would be room for doubt. But since it FIRST identifies me and THEN confirms the name against what it was already expecting– CLEAR must be far superior to TSA looking at you and trying to guess if you are the same face as the generic license photo you handed them.
Don’t argue that CLEAR should go away. If anything, argue that they should have to verify everyone. Argue that paying to cut the line is wrong if you will, but CLEAR increases security, not decreases it.
But CLEAR is a pivate for-profit company with privileged access. We shouldn’t be comparing them to the TSA, however flawed they may be. Framing the call-outs of issues at CLEAR as an attack is late-stage capitalist bullshit that relies on thinking profit seeking by corporations is an inalienable right.
The issue about TSA and contraband is also a red herring, at least partially. Their job is not to prevent contraband, it’s to ensure safety. There is overlap but the goals are not the same.
I’ve long wondered whether all this process was actually about security or about getting or issuing lucrative government contracts. I think the latter has a very important role. It’s not just Europe with much better procedures; I spent some time in Australia recently, making quite a few domestic flights and it’s so much easier and safer than our system.
@Packy the contraband in question is… weapons. And the relevant comparison is both in terms of performance and also employee accountability for failure.
But CLEAR doesn’t screen for contraband so there’s no comparison there
As for accountability, yes CLEAR has more aggressively punished staff and managers, but they haven’t shaken up leadership or really addressed systematic concerns it seems, just threw some folks under the bus. TSA is a government agency and so has a completely different dynamic with their employees than a private employer.
TSA is 80 % forienger’s that could care less about America’s safety. TSA should be done away with and completely overhauled!
Meanwhile down on the southern border……what an effed up country we’ve become.
I’ve noticed recently that Clear is staffing way more people than they used to… Which seems to actually make things more confusing and less…. CLEAR, hah, when going through.
As long as the process if have real biometrics, scan biometrics, scan boarding pass for a match to person, walk person and boarding pass to TSA agent, all done by ONE employee, they should be good. It’s the allowing manual override, and having more than one person handle the same passenger, that got them in trouble. Fix that, don’t just throw more staff at it.
CLEAR is better identity verification than TSA alone, so there is actual security value in the program, at least if you’ve already decided positively identifying who is flying is important.
I still don’t know how they make any money though.
As Gary pointed out in the article, CLEAR does nothing. ID checks do nothing for security (they’re in place to help the airline enforce ticket nonrefundability). TSA as presently constituted does very little.
The current Pre-Check process, less ID checks and looking for bottles of water (which also does nothing for security), should be the standard with no special lines for anyone other than on-duty airport employees. If an airline decides that its customers aren’t getting through security fast enough, they can lobby Congress to fix TSA
@Brad Why would the airlines care? Everybody knows that TSA sucks. How about a grassroots campaign to ‘defund the TSA’? I mean I’ve never heard a single person that I know talk good about TSA, to include those I know that work in other DHS departments. A guy I work with now used to be on a contract training TSA agents on how to use the scanners and he said he could get anything through that he wanted to at any time. So as we all suspect/know, it’s security farce anyway.
@Mitch Gary raised the question of whether the airlines should be able to prioritize screening. (The answer is no, unless maybe they want to take over screening from TSA and have strict standards for waiting time.)
Judging by these comments, most people seem to think TSA (the Government) is by definition in charge of airport security. This is not the case, however. Many airports contract with other companies to do passenger screenings. I flew through Key West, FL (EYW) and not a single TSA employee was there. The airport is merely obligated to provide passenger screening that meets a certain level of assurance. CLEAR is no different, except that their service is merely to authenticate the person rather than also screen their baggage. Going after them—especially considering the inherent superiority of their approach, not to mention the conflict of interest of AA being involved—is asinine.
@OK – there are very few airports using contractors through the TSA’s Screening Partnership Program. TSA has a bias against approving new participants. And those screeners work to TSA standards, however data suggests they do so more efficiently.
@Gary Leff, it’s true that private companies are the exception rather than the rule, but the comments suggesting that CLEAR doesn’t belong in the airport security process because the Government is supposed to screen passengers are undermined by the fact that the TSA doesn’t necessarily screen passengers.
Clear and ADT (alarm company) have same business model. They’re using public assets (machinery, technology, vehicles, employees and personnel of all levels) to provide a private service. Their profits are primarily generated by not compensating the public for having to share their resources. I’m against this type of “sharing” which enriches private parties, to the detriment of the public, and seems to me (pardon the pun) clearly unfair
The reason I got CLEAR the first time was because I walked into the IAH terminal 1.5 hours ahead of my domestic flight and the security line was all the way to the glass entrance doors of the terminal. There must have been 1000 people in line. I’ve only seen a line like that once in my life at LAX. Maybe this was a very unusual day (not a holiday or anything) but as i stood there thinking I would never get through this line in time, a CLEAR rep approached me and said they were having a free trial and would I like to sign up. The guy next to me asked if he could too. As we bypassed hundreds and hundreds of people waiting in line and spent 5 minutes signing up, I’ve never been so relieved. Was it fair to all the other people stuck in line? Maybe not. Did I pay to sign up for the following year? Hell yes! If CLEAR doesn’t belong in airports then the TSA lines need to be staffed to accommodate the number of passengers on any given day. I don’t like having to pay extra to get through security lines in a reasonable amount of time either.
I have a huge problem with a private for-profit corporation getting special perks at tax-payer funded public airports. The amount the airports receive from Clear is minimal. More corporate welfare to benefit Clear customers and shareholders. Their goal is to make the affordable TSA Precheck irrelevant. Only their clients who can afford the $200/year will be able to avoid the wait in line. It sucks living in this greedy oligarchy.
Bottom line CLEAR is just a roach that sucks profits from wealthy passengers to allow them to cut in front of other taxpayers. It doesn’t do security and it’s not responsible for ID checking.
Yup, 100% it should be eliminated. The only reason it exists is because it bribes (sorry, “provides lobbying support”) government.
In other words, it’s 100% swamp.
The sooner it’s gone, the better.
@Jake so only wealthy individuals can afford CLEAR? Yea right. Anyone that flies more than a handful of times a year is a fool if they don’t have both PRE and CLEAR. And I can’t imagine that anyone bothering to read this blog doesn’t fly that much ♂️
So which is it Jake? You a fool or don’t fly?
Both of us have TSA Pre via Global Entry. We’ve also had discounted pricing with Clear for the past few years because of an airline/credit card promotion and we won’t be renewing this year. We travel most of the year (hundreds of flights) and Clear has only been helpful once. Quite often the TSA Pre lines are faster and recently a majority of the Clear machines have not recognized either my eye scans or my finger prints.
I think Clear is a transition technology. It’s not necessary, in Europe for example, because all of my flights are linked to my passport either upon entry to the EU or through my airline which requires an upload ahead of time. In those airports, I just scan my boarding pass. In some places my passport photo is displayed back to me by the scanning machine. I go through an additional passport presentation at boarding, but I like that because I confirm that I have my passport with me and didn’t leave it at the checkin counter.
Clear takes up valuable space that could be better spent opening more precheck lanes – you know, the actual government service, not the private for-profit knockoff. Clear should be barred from airports entirely and that space reclaimed.
Reminds me of the politics that killed off the original Mobile Passport Control apps and get things to a point that CBP could instead get its own software planted on phones but also wanted it gone anyway as they wanted to have us all submit to biometric arrival processing in some electronic form or another. The CBP’s parcel, ironically, was CBP’s privacy concerns about private sectors apps facilitating MPC use. And also, CBP and some of its external fanboys had some people who really didn’t like how many Muslim Americans were involved in the originals MPC product and tech development.
@KC “I have a huge problem with a private for-profit corporation getting special perks at tax-payer funded public airports.”
Now do airlines and credit card issuer private clubs.
For-profit corporations enter into commercial relationships that the airport owners/operators (or at least. some in decision-making/influencing positions) want for financial or other operational interests that the airport side of the relationship considers attractive.
And I a say that even as I am not a big fan of Clear for reasons related to my opposition to this passenger ID checking as security scam and my preference for the airlines to more directly run the show again.
A few years back I went through clear when I first signed up via online. They just let me pass by everything without credentials or an account. On my return flight I was not signed up and that’s when they actually did sign me up and noticed.
Every now and then, a story brings out the worst in the anonymous troll contingent.
Some ugly opinions here.
As for Clear, if you can’t afford it, you have other choices. We live in a capitalist society. Earn more, get to spend more. Clear is a luxury.
My problem with CLEAR has been that it really is just a line jumping service for it’s users. Their biometric checking and boarding pass validation is a smoke screen and the one convenience it provides, not having to produce a license, seems irrelevant now. The last 8 times I went through CLEAR I had to produce ID. Each of those times, my wife did not. I told CLEAR that they were discriminating and they refused to acknowledge that and said it was due to TSA. Well, if that is the case, then why bother with CLEAR as the service becomes less than useless. I’m considering a class action lawsuit as they failed to provide the service I paid them for – expedited screening by TSA. At least with this news I now know why this has been happening – not a problem with me but with CLEAR! More reason why they should be giving me a refund of their flawed service.
Now, why not just line up with other PRE-CHECK travelers? Well, CBP has messed that up as well. Rather than it being a privileged group that has been per-screened they seemingly let anyone in these days. I’ve seen couples with 3+ kids, foreigners who don’t understand English, etc. go through the line slowing it down. It is almost impossible to believe that all of those people had been appropriately background checked to be in the PRE line.
Hmmm, I’ve only used it a couple times a year and don’t remember if I had to pull out my ID, but the benefit to me was bypassing the long line. They have my eyeball scan and fingerprints so I don’t know why they’d need my ID too. I get a statement credit for it through one of my credit cards. So it’s really not just a privileged few with money. I think I don’t even fall in the middle class anymore, sigh… Of course not everyone gets it free with their credit card but I imagine hundreds of thousands of people or more have the same credit card as I do or another that offers a discount. As to fairness, well, some people would rather spend their money for a business class ticket and some would rather save money and fly Spirit. Some people would rather pay not to stand in line and others would rather wait in line to save money.
I personally don’t care if they check my ID I’m a member of clear and I’m only using it quite honestly to get to the front of the line so if the TSA officer wants to check my ID for 2 seconds let them doesn’t matter to me.
CLEAR is disgusting and needs to go. It’s another mechanism of providing a different class of experience to the wealthy instead of putting the proper budget towards increasing staffing or innovating better security methods for the governmental systems which we already pay for. Before the long string of people crying foul on the efficiency of government, they don’t seem to have any issues with the flight controllers. Would you let CLEAR handle that? There are some things that are best not driven by profit motivations.
@D Rock No problem with flight controllers? Haven’t you been paying attention. There’s a SEVERE LACK OF THEM!
@Gary Leff
I dkn’t know if Bob replied tl your reply… Butnifnyounwoukd allow me:
I am quoting you:
“Should there be PreCheck as a short cut?”
Precheck is different. It is still through TSA. Not a private emtity whose primary goal not the safety of rhe travelling.public, but in making a profit instead!
“What about premium passenger lanes?”
You mean like CLEAR? The amswer is “NO”.
“What about where terminals are controlled privately by an airline, can they control queuing within their own terminal?”
Again, TSA is the primary governmental agency in charge of security at airports. The airlines should not be able to control who passes security and under what standards. The only way you can maintain the same standard for all travelers at all airports is to have all passengers checked by the one agency that has been tasked witb establishing those standards and maintaining rhem. The TSA!
My problem is giving my biometrics to a central database as massive and juicy a target as CLEAR. I work in InfoSec, mark my words CLEAR’s database will one day be cracked and then all your biometrics will forever be compromised and then we’ll be arguing about how unfair it is that people with more money can afford to change their retinal signatures.