A new bill, the first of its kind in the U.S., would ban security screening company Clear from operating at California airports as lawmakers take aim at companies that let consumers pay to pass through security ahead of other travelers.
Sen. Josh Newman, a California Democrat and the sponsor of the legislation, said Clear effectively lets wealthier people skip in front of passengers who have been waiting to be screened by Transportation Security Administration agents.
“It’s a basic equity issue when you see people subscribed to a concierge service being escorted in front of people who have waited a long time to get to the front of TSA line,” Newman told CBS MoneyWatch. “Everyone is beaten down by the travel experience, and if Clear escorts a customer in front of you and tells TSA, ‘Sorry, I have someone better,’ it’s really frustrating.”
If passed, the bill would bar Clear, a private security clearance company founded in 2010, from airports in California. Clear charges members $189 per year to verify passengers’ identities at airports and escort them through security, allowing them to bypass TSA checkpoints. The service is in use at roughly 50 airports across the U.S., as well as at dozens of sports stadiums and other venues.
The only step Clear skips is essentially identifying your identity. As in, you are who you say you are. They do this by requiring your eye retina scan biometrics (no thank you). This replaces a TSA officer looking at your ID and looking at your face and letting you through to the next step.
After the identity check (TSA looking at your ID or Clear looking at your retinas) all the steps and priority are identical. Your hand carried bags are xray scanned, you go through a body scanner of some kind.
My mate and I were traveling for awhile where she had Clear and I just had TSA Pre. Out of 8 times traversing security, only one time was she through faster than I was. She dropped her Clear service (which was just a free trial anyway).
It doesn’t even do that. The TSA agent still checks your ID. And that’s not even the bottleneck at security anyway.
When I’ve seen Clear customer traverse, they are check by face/eyes with their machines, a Clear employee walks them to the front of the line, announces to the TSA officer that X number of cleared passengers are entering and the Clear employee shows their ID. I have never seen a Clear customer show an ID to a TSA agent.
Is it really retina, or is it iris scan? The latter is easier (therefore cheaper and more common), but more prone to false positives.
Good question. I don’t know.