Congress Wants Some “Clear” Answers
Author: Dave Lewis
The storm clouds are gathering over the Clear debacle. Someone woke up Congress and now they want answers.
From Wired:
Clear subscribers paid $200 annually to skip to the front of security lines at 20 of the countries largest airports, but they had to undergo a background check and turn over social security numbers, fingerprints and iris prints to get the card.
That data trove left a lot of unanswered questions after Clear closed abruptly last Monday night. The company, which was founded by journalist-cum-entrepreneur Steven Brill, belatedly told members it was seeking to sell its data to another fast-lane company. If a buyer wasn’t found, it would destroy the data, according to the company’s website.
Hmm. $200 dollar subscriptions for over 165,000 people. So, $33 mil per annum and they’re not filing for bankruptcy? This smells all wrong.
Not only am I curious as to the fate of the data but, where did all the money go?
Hvaing been something that TSA had in mind on their own before Clear (and dismissed it), I wouldn’t be terribly surprised (paranoid hat on!) if the TSA had some sort of stake in this in the first place.
I mean, really, they have to in order to give a ‘business’ like this an ok to cut in line up to the front or have their own lines.
Or maybe someone else thought they’d start a rival business…and how stupid would that be to have 4 dedicated lines or abilities to cut in line? So maybe TSA pulled the plug on the back end…who knows.
But yeah, valid question: where the f is the money? And get your hands the f off that data.