California could ban Clear, which lets travelers pay to skip TSA lines
California could ban Clear, which lets travelers pay to skip TSA lines
A "concierge service" that lets paying members bypass airport security lines is unfair to other travelers, California lawmaker says.
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.
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What's the fucking point of the TSA if you can just pay extra to bypass it?
It doesn't really seem like a stretch that a terrorist organization could come up with a little extra money per ticket to make sure their plan pays off.Clear doesn't bypass TSA. It just skips you to the front of the line.
It does bypass TSA. The Clear agent goes up to the front of the TSA line, tells the TSA agent "This one is okay, I checked, you don't need to," and through you go.
How often do you fly in the United States? That's not how it works.
They walk you up to the front of the ID check line. TSA still checks your ID, and you still go through security.
They take you to the front of the line but, they still need to go through the actual screening (metal detector, bag scanning).
From the clear website: Simply step up to a CLEAR Pod at the airport where you’ll scan your boarding pass and eyes or fingerprints, and an Ambassador will escort you to the front of the security line for your screening.
The TSA Precheck line for xray and metal detector is far less stringent than the "regular" line. They use metal detectors only, not body scanners. You don't have to take your shoes off or electronics out of your bags. It's like going to the airport in the 1990s.
Clear and its counterparts allow you to have access to that lower level of screening without having TSA Precheck.
Not at all airports. In LAX and DEN CLEAR only skips you to the front of the normal line, not the TSA Pre line.
Unless you already have TSA Pre
Right, I didn't realize that part when I posted. So the people who skip the TSA Pre line are paying for both, not just Clear. Just paying for Clear only brings you to the front of the normal line.
Nope definitely not. I had a one year trial of it. They skip you to the front of the precheck line and you don't need to show ID, but your stuff still needs to go through the xray and you have to go through the detector.
Edit: in some airports I guess it depends on if you have TSA Pre as well which line you get put into the front of.
It doesn't bypass TSA. Maybe it is different at different airports, but all of the ones I fly through on a regular basis the Clear people only take you to the normal TSA screener, where you still get screened. They don't bypass that screening and they don't take you to the TSA Pre line. In other airports they might take you to the TSA Pre line, but you still get screened there. Just less intense baggage and body scanning.
The company runs a background check to verify that the person isn't a terrorist. Then at the airport they use biometrics to verify their identity.
I don’t trust a private company to do that screening. They will skimp on checks to save money the moment they have a bad quarter unless there are specific rules forced on them by TSA.
What’s preventing one of their software developers from just creating a bunch of approved people? Probably not much.
Clear sucks and I hate them, but:
I don’t trust a private company to do that screening
There are specific rules forced on them, and the real screening still happens at the checkpoint, by the TSA.
Keep in mind two things:
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Prior to the early 2000s, there was so such thing as the TSA, and all airport screening was done by various third parties, though still according to rules set forth by the federal government. But it was just a vendor doing the screening, usually the same vendor that pushes Wheelchairs.
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Since it's creation, the TSA has failed audit after audit after audit letting prohibited items through, so they are not a paragon of security
You could argue it's all moot, and this is largely security theater anyway, which wouldn't be fully wrong.
I flew before 2001 and man flying was so much faster and easier before TSA. I get it’s not perfect, I just trust something with no profit motive more than companies who will justify anything for a dollar. Either way, I prefer Clear not exist because there is enough pre-paid privilege in the American caste system.
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Sounds like what tsa should be doing. Either security is necessary or it isn't. The airport is the most classist place in the country.
That's the premise of TSA pre check. Clear just adds biometric verification instead of a TSA agent checking IDs.
Honestly, it's stupid and I've refused to use it because I don't trust companies with that biometric data. I saw TSA try to use similar at an airport once and I specifically opted out.
Tsa precheck is better than clear anyway. Clear just puts you at the front of the normal line. Precheck allows you to skip the normal line entirely.
I had to travel with a school group recently so couldn't use Pre. At the front of the TSA line, they took my ID, then had me stand in front of a camera and display screen. It showed it scanning my face and clearly doing face feature segmentation (eyes, nose, hairline, etc).
So that's now happening too.
Yea. That's what I opted out of. Afaik, you still can and it's only in a very small disclaimer right there at the TSA agent.
Sounds like what tsa should be doing.
That is what TSA is doing. Clear just lets you bypass the TSA Precheck line and go straight to the xray machine and metal detector (they don't use full body scans on that side).
Ah so it's for drug trafficking not terrorism
TSA has always been security theatre. Have they ever stopped a credible threat?
I can't believe I'm saying something positive about them, but they keep about 6,500 guns off planes a year. Irrespective of thoughts on gun control measures, I think most would consider a gun on a plane a credible threat.
Good to give them credit where it is due. They can be a horrible, mismanaged, institution and still do some good!
Which could easily be duplicated by metal detectors at the airport entrance. Without disrupting flow of passengers. At far less cost.
It is a security threat to have TSA lines in airports. Any terrorist could walk into the airport security line with a firearm or explosives and kill hundreds of people.
We would never know. The thing about the circus that is the TSA is that it does cut people off from even planning to go that route. And the simple fact is that annual hijackings since 2002 are way down.
So that means the TSA could do the same thing for anyone with Pre-Check or Global Entry since we already had to go through all that.
Isis: we would love to suicide bomb a plane, but the budgets a bit tight this month and we just can't afford to cover the TSA skip.