“Clear” registered traveler company fails after wasting $116M
260,000 members down the tubes. No refunds.
Congratulations, suckers! Not only did you sign up for and pay money to a totalitarian program, but as usual, the police state was run by incompetents. Your little attempt to suck up to the TSA gestapo now won’t be doing you any good.
Their competitor “Flo Corp” is working hard to “analyze the implications of this announcement”. We can give them some help. A tiny minority of Americans signed up for the National Security State you offered them. You lost the election, the people voted with their wallets and their feet. Your fly-by-night stock is hovering right near 1cent per share. So get a clue and get out of the business while you still can pay your debts. What the public deserves is reform of the whole TSA system, so it provides real rights and real service and real accountability to EVERY traveler — not just to rich guys happy to have their iris and fingerprints on file. TSA’s culture of impunity needs to end, then we’ll all get along a lot better.
Oh, and to investors in Clear? It’s charming how you hoped to profit from funding the totalitarian tracking of the movements of all the citizens. (You couldn’t hope to make money at it unless pretty much every traveler signed up for it.) We’re so glad that every dollar you gave Clear is now a dollar that you can’t waste on your next socially destructive idea.
I love good news!
This issue raises a larger question — what would ideal airport security look like?
Would a system that allows you to remain anonymous and screens only for weapons acceptable?
If you were allowed to remain anonymous and airport screening was for weapons only (yes, I know I’m dreaming), would it be bad to allow you to voluntarily give up anonymity and undergo a background check in exchange for a less thorough (quicker) screening?
There is the slippery slope objection — if the background check option became too popular, the anonymity option might disappear.
There is the security theater objection — if the background check is not effective, then the whole thing becomes an exercise in submitting to authority with no real safety improvement.
> 260,000 members down the tubes. No refunds.
Class action lawsuit?
If the company really is declaring bankruptcy, it ought to be worth the time of some enterprising lawyer to represent these people and make sure they get their money back before any other creditors are paid.
> not just to rich guys happy to have their iris and fingerprints on file.
The fee was $200 a year. Hardly out of range for your average middle-class frequent flier.
I also note that the database of personal information on alll these travelers is no doubt in _someones_ possession, a creditor perhaps, that you don’t know and may not be able to find. This is another very good reason never to sign up for one of these schemes.
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