this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2024
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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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[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 months ago (3 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Clear doesn't bypass TSA. It just skips you to the front of the line.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (4 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago

What’s preventing one of their software developers from just creating a bunch of approved people? Probably not much.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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:

  1. 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.

  2. 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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago

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).

[–] [email protected] 11 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ah so it's for drug trafficking not terrorism

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

TSA has always been security theatre. Have they ever stopped a credible threat?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

Good to give them credit where it is due. They can be a horrible, mismanaged, institution and still do some good!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

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.

https://aviation-safety.net/statistics/period/stats.php

[–] [email protected] 7 points 7 months ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

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.