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Privacy Transportation

Biometrics Company Clear Is Bringing Its Airport Scanners To Retail Stores (wsj.com) 30

Posted by BeauHD from the faster-screening-but-at-what-cost dept.
Clear Secure, an identification services company known for its expedited screening product for air travelers, is bringing its biometric sign-up scanners to locations beyond airports. The Wall Street Journal reports: The company has temporarily installed the biometrics machines this month inside a Showfields Inc. interactive mall and at a Rimowa Distribution Inc. luggage store in New York City as well as a Rimowa in San Francisco. Clear's main product, Clear Plus, checks travelers' identities at airport security using biometrics such as iris scans, and lets them skip the wait for agents to check their photo IDs. Enrollment typically begins online but customers usually must go to a Clear airport location to scan their biometrics. Annual memberships cost $179.

Clear created the temporary installations to showcase its technology more widely and to expose consumers to its products beyond travel, said Caryn Seidman Becker, chief executive of the company. Other products include Clear Stadium Access, a product that lets people skip long lines at sports and entertainment venues. The pop-ups are also offering Clear gift cards, a first for the company. The company also wanted to address pent-up demand from consumers who traveled less during the pandemic, Ms. Seidman Becker said.
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Biometrics Company Clear Is Bringing Its Airport Scanners To Retail Stores More

Biometrics Company Clear Is Bringing Its Airport Scanners To Retail Stores

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  • This is worse than the world ending. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by AndyKron ( 937105 ) on Thursday December 16, 2021 @05:22AM (#62085843)
    You can avoid long lines with a biometric scan and $179 a year? I can't say "fuck the Patriot Act" loud enough or hard enough.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by rally2xs ( 1093023 )

      Yeah, they can all go F themselves. Stores using this crap are stores I won't be visiting. Can't think of a better way for a retailer to shoot himself in the foot than starting up with a bunch of requirements in order to enter the store. Hell, Costco has a requirement to BUY the right to buy something there. Nope, not happening. Also don't frequent any other subscription retailers like Sams Club. I think there's another one, and if there is, I don't go there either. I'll walk in the door, browse

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gtall ( 79522 )

        You aren't big on reading comprehension are you. The company is fishing for people WHO TRAVEL or go to other large venues like stadiums that require some sort of check to be sure you aren't Ahmed the Terrorist. The fact that they put the machines in stores seems to have confused you into thinking the stores are going to use it to screen people coming on the premises. The machines are only there to enroll you in their system.

        I won't sign up, but reading comprehension is a skill usually taught in grade school

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by judoguy ( 534886 )
      Yeah, I agree that the terrorists won but I travel a lot and Clear and Global Entry make it a lot easier. If I get to the airport more than 1/2 hour before boarding, even for an international flight, I feel like I'm wasting time. I never show an ID to the TSA and always have PreCheck. Coming back from Europe Clear isn't available but at least I don't have to wait in the customs line when I get here with Global Entry.

      Sucks to go through the security theater at all but like the stupid Covid theater, it's th

      • Re:This is worse than the world ending. (Score:5, Insightful)

        by quonset ( 4839537 ) on Thursday December 16, 2021 @06:23AM (#62085941)

        Yeah, I agree that the terrorists won but I travel a lot and Clear and Global Entry make it a lot easier. If I get to the airport more than 1/2 hour before boarding, even for an international flight, I feel like I'm wasting time. I never show an ID to the TSA and always have PreCheck. Coming back from Europe Clear isn't available but at least I don't have to wait in the customs line when I get here with Global Entry.

        Sucks to go through the security theater at all but like the stupid Covid theater, it's that or not travel.

        Your sig is so perfect for your comments.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by I75BJC ( 4590021 )
      I don't shop that much in retail stores. The $179 is more than I want to pay.
      Sometimes, I go in stores to look around in an effort to keep up with prices, products, and availability of specific items.
      Why should I pay for "window shopping" or using the restroom? The one type of store that I regularly go into has standards for sales that make this an unnecessary procedure and expense

      In my final analysis, I don't need the temptation to spend money. (Even the grocery stores offer curbside pickup.)
      I don'

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by fermion ( 181285 )
      I am not sure what the advantage of this is over global entry. Lines are short, and nothing but passport or DL needed. Only $100 for five years. On entry to US face scan gets you in.

  • "Annual memberships cost $179"

    For my 2 flights a year for $29.95 it ain't worth it.

  • Was is the point of this ?

    Why would Costco, or whatever, want to scan me before entry ?

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by suss ( 158993 )

      Possibly to see if you gained weight, and taunt you about it when you go to the snacks section...

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      To recognize known shoplifters. They can also use it to spy on you, e.g. seeing which stores you visit and at what times.

    • Why would Costco, or whatever, want to scan me before entry ?

      What? You're literally asking why a store which requires that you present a membership card at entry time would want to scan you before entry? Are you new? Not here, just in general?

    • It's not that they're scanning you to get into the store. It's that they're putting the signup machines in retail stores so you can sign up close to home instead of having to travel to the airport to do it. If you plan on using the service, that's a great convenience.

      It's basically just having a mall kiosk to let you sign up for their service.

  • "The company has temporarily installed the biometrics machines this month inside a Showfields Inc. interactive mall and at a Rimowa Distribution Inc. luggage store in New York City as well as a Rimowa in San Francisco."

    Three places I will never consider visiting...EVER.

    Oh, and an interactive mall sounds like wall to wall advertising punching you in the face as you stagger through.

  • Oh goody (Score:3)

    by RotateLeftByte ( 797477 ) on Thursday December 16, 2021 @06:32AM (#62085963)

    another way to drive people away from physical stores and online.
    I wonder if you follow the money, you will find that the Bezos Tat Sellers Inc are behind this?

  • Facefirst, the "largest centrally managed" database of American's biometric data, is already doing this in virtually every retail environment. And it's free. Well, the cost is that you may be "privately curated" onto their "watchlisting-as-a-service" platform.

  • Fuck Clear (Score:3)

    by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Thursday December 16, 2021 @08:40AM (#62086213)
    I travel frequently so after 9/11 eventually ended up going thru the process and getting Global Entry. I've already paid money and submitted to a background check for this. Every time I see Clear at an airport I roll my eyes. They've literally got people at the start of the Clear lines trying to persuade travelers to enter, like barkers on the sidewalk soliciting dudes to go into a strip club. That's because they need them. The Clear lines are always empty and almost completely unused but TSA Precheck lines are allowed to fill up -- sometimes worse than normal passenger lines with full screening. Get rid of this 3rd party shit service that no one uses and that's consuming valuable airport resources and creating a traffic jam. The owners of Clear must have naughty pix of some Senator that their crappy unwanted service is still allowed in airports after all these years.
    • Where do you go that Precheck lines are that full? The biggest problem I ever encounter with it is that dumbasses who don't have it just get in it because it's a shorter line. On a recent trip to Salt Lake City they actually had people standing there asking people if they were Precheck or not at the start of the line. They seemed to have a very good sense of the profile of people who have it or don't, actually - they didn't say a word to my wife or me. Maybe facial scanning was used as people got into the l

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by flink ( 18449 )

        Boston Logan the line often wraps around and into the outer terminal.

        • Never flown into Boston, good to know. I've heard somewhat similar stories about Orlando; one was when I was talking to a guy who was operating a popup store in Dallas but was regional and based in Orlando. This was a year or so ago; told him about Clear and that he should at least look into it as much as he flew for business. He also didn't know about GE/Precheck.

  • Retail Stores with rent a cops and that look like an jail will really speed up the death of retail.

  • Just remember, you can change your password anytime some ones database gets hacked. You can never change your biometrics. No one is naive to think that biometrics can't be hacked. What will you do then?

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