They’re back! CLEAR is back.

Nearly a year later and CLEAR is back! And, they are excited to exceed your expectations.

CLEAR is back and under new ownership. We are transforming the CLEAR service, and with it your travel experience. For those of you who are not familiar with CLEAR please click here to learn more about us.

For our existing members, we appreciate your patience and loyalty. It is important for you to know that we will honor your remaining membership terms. The new CLEAR is a customer centric company - we want to rebuild it with you and for you.

Please click here to provide us with your current information and we will keep you up to date on the details of our progress.

The new CLEAR team is excited to exceed your expectations.

Last year I blogged a couple of times about CLEAR:

• CLEAR is still unCLEAR
• CLEAR is dead. What about my retinal scans?

The new CEO is Caryn Seidman Becker. I couldn’t find out much about her or the new backers. In any case I really doubt I’ll be re-joining CLEAR. Why not?

1. The airlines control priority lanes at most airports. At most airports I can jump to the front of lines or join an “express” line with my airline status.
2. At some airports the CLEAR lane would merge into other lanes so you really didn’t a jump on things.
3. The TSA has done a much better job of speeding things up and the rotten things about security you will still be subject to whether you have CLEAR or not – like full body scans (aside: I prefer the European full-body pat down!).
4. CLEAR is not owned or run by the government. How long does Caryn last before we go through this again?
5. CLEAR is not everywhere – certainly not in my home airport of Seattle. Oh, and it was closed everywhere. Now they have to re-build their network. Can they be successful? Who knows.

Last but not least: My CLEAR membership expired. By what right does the new company “get” my retinal scans and biometrics? Perhaps Ms. Becker would state that in the FAQ what they are going to do with expired membership data. It’s unCLEAR what will happen to former members data who do not re-join:

Q: Is my personal data safe?
A: Our member’s biographic and biometric data has been stored in a secure facility since June 2009, when the former company shut down.  In the next 30-60 days, that data will be transferred to another secure facility governed by the appropriate safeguards.

Q: How will the new CLEAR be handling privacy issues?
A: We will publish a privacy policy reflecting the information practices of the new CLEAR program.  By opting in, former CLEAR customers may join the new program, at which time their personal information will be governed by the new privacy policy.  In the meantime, we will abide by the terms of the privacy policy issued by Verified Identity Pass, the former owner of CLEAR.

I just don't see the value anymore - sorry CLEAR.

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