Verified Identity Pass Shuts Down "Clear" Operations 171
torrentami writes that Verified Identity Pass, operator of the "Clear" program, which allowed pre-screened passengers faster access to US airport gates, "sent out emails to its subscribers today informing them that as of 11 p.m. PST they will cease operations. Clear was a pioneer in speeding customers through security at airports and had planned on expanding to large events. The service, where it was available, offered a first class security experience for travelers willing to fork over $200 a year and their biometrics. Customers are now left holding their Flyclear cards with encrypted biometrics. The question now becomes, what happens to all that information? This is not the first time Clear has been in the news. A laptop containing customer records was reportedly missing from the San Francisco International airport recently but then turned up shortly thereafter. Another casualty of the recession's downturn in business travel."
What happens? (Score:5, Funny)
The question now becomes, what happens to all that information?
Simple. It gets sold on eBay along with their servers.....
AYBAB2U (Score:3, Funny)
All Your Biometrics are Belong to Us!
Re:Most people won't care, but at Orlando... (Score:4, Funny)
Could the TSA's own advances in screening have killed off the company's business model?
Clearly, the gubmint should step in and stop the TSA from getting efficient, frail business models need to be protected, right?
Re:Most people won't care, but at Orlando... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Color me unsurprised (Score:5, Funny)
How about not having to get to the airport -- what is it now, 36 hours? -- before your flight?
Sitting down at the gate and waiting is quite a bit different than waiting in line with all the cows that have never been to the airport.
Re:There goes my argument... (Score:2, Funny)
To evaluate his giant conspiracy theories, natch.
Re:Who are we kidding? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Most people won't care, but at Orlando... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm glad they x-rayed your guns; who knows how many weapons you could have hidden in them!
Re:Most people won't care, but at Orlando... (Score:4, Funny)
The entire government in California is run by chimpanzees - there can't possibly be enough left over to run even one DMV office in Florida, let alone the whole organization.
(Although, California is running out of bananas - some of their government chimpanzees may be migrating East soon -- be afraid, be very afraid).
Re:There goes my argument... (Score:5, Funny)
A few flight attendants cut in line in front of me just before the x-ray machines at the terminal security (which they are entitled to do, no complaints if they're cute) and the last one through set off the metal detector and had to be wanded. She asked the TSA guy "uhhh, what exactly are you looking for, anyway?"
He replied, "anything you may have on your person that you could use to attempt to gain access to the cockpit." That seemed like a logical and fairly intelligent response from someone moments away from digging through my skivvies on my carry-on to find the suspicious USB cable.
That is, until she pulled the key that was on a laniard around her neck into the open, and remarked, "Oh, you mean something like THIS?"
*facepalm*
Re:There goes my argument... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Most people won't care, but at Orlando... (Score:3, Funny)
Doesn't Orlando have self-select back diamond lanes?
Yes. And when I flew there last week, in front of the lanes entrance there was a TSA employee directing everyone equally into allo 3 lanes, regardless of the black diamond designation. Many families with cartfulls of luggage and 3-4 kids were sent to the "expert traveler" lane.