Speeds and Feeds

I received an interesting phone call this afternoon. It was from Ellen Howe of the Transportation Security Administration, regarding my blog post on Monday titled "Is Clear a present danger for football fans?"

Howe wanted to correct an error I made. It seems that TSA is no longer running background checks on applicants for the Clear Registered Traveler program managed by Verified Identity Pass, Inc. (VIP).

I made that mistake based on statements on the Clear website and in local news coverage of the new Clear lanes at San Francisco 49ers games.

The Clear card

(Credit: Verified Identity Pass)

Howe said that as for the other issues I raised in my original post, I was "on track with what (I) said," so that was good to hear.

Clear's site still carries many press releases describing the background-check step in its application process, and I can't find any mention there of the termination of this process, which Howe says took effect at the end of July. I found the official notice of the change in the Federal Register for July 30.

Clear's "About" page still says "Clear members are pre-screened," but that's no longer true in any meaningful way.

The only thing Clear does now is checking each applicant's government-issued IDs before generating the Clear card from the applicant's biometric data. Clear knows you're you-- but no longer knows if you're any more trustworthy than anyone else.

Why does VIP allow this misunderstanding to persist? Well, it certainly makes the company and its services look more valuable. That statement about pre-screening also appears in the August 20 press release from Clear announcing that it has received $44.4 million in additional venture funding. I hope the investors learned the truth before transferring their funds.

This change only reinforces my previous conclusions. There is now no reason for security personnel-- at an airport, a sporting event, or anywhere else-- to give any special treatment to Clear members. (That said, I wouldn't criticize anyone for taking advantage of this special treatment. I've often thought about getting a Clear card myself, though I never have.)

So as of now, the Clear service is nothing more than a way to skip to the front of security lines in return for paying a $128 annual fee. That doesn't seem right to me unless the money serves to improve the screening process, but I haven't seen any evidence that this is happening.

Clear, a program approved by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration that lets frequent fliers bypass airport security lines, is now being used to let football fans bypass the security lines at pro football games.

Deals are kicking off this fall at home games for the San Francisco 49ers, the Atlanta Falcons, and the Denver Broncos.

Clear, the largest of four Registered Traveler programs operating at U.S. airports, isn't run by the TSA. It's a private service of Verified Identity Pass (VIP).

The Clear card

(Credit: Verified Identity Pass)

Doesn't it seem like VIP is leveraging its privileged position in airport security--a position established in cooperation with a federal agency--to enhance its position in private security?

Doesn't it seem to trivialize the program to use it for sporting events? Or conversely, doesn't bringing fingerprint and iris scanners to football games seem to overestimate the risk of terrorism at such events?

And if this is just the next step in a strategy to expand VIP's involvement in private security, how far will it go?

Is VIP now talking with movie theaters? Shopping malls? How many more places will be giving us a choice between longer security lines or giving up some of our privacy?

It also bothers me that the Clear program is clearly not good for security. At best (at best!), it's a way to bypass security lines for a fee. At worst, it's a way for terrorists to bypass security entirely.

Although the Clear program puts applicants through a background check, it's a fairly trivial check of criminal and other records. The fact is that many of the terrorists involved in some of the worst attacks of the last 20 years would surely have qualified for a Clear card.

Update, September 24: this background check is no longer performed. Anyone can get a Clear card as long as they have two forms of government identification. See my followup post, "Is Clear worth anything at all?"

At airports, one hopes that the TSA security officers give the same scrutiny to Clear's patrons that they give to everyone else. At least, that's what TSA administrator Kip Hawley said in a July 2007 interview with security expert Bruce Schneier.

But when the Clear program is extended to football stadiums and possibly other locations, where security is provided by relatively untrained and often part-time personnel, it's inevitable that people going through the Clear line will get less attention.

So I think the conclusion is inescapable: stadiums with Clear lines are less safe than those without.

VIP executives may have visions of Clear-based security lines everywhere people gather, but in my opinion, they aren't thinking clearly.