Clear Secure

Clear Secure, Inc. is an American technology company that operates biometric travel document verification systems at some major airports and stadiums. It was founded in 2003, but shut down in 2009 after filing for bankruptcy. It was relaunched in 2012 and went public in 2021.

Clear partners with airports, who allow it to operate in exchange for commissions on new members. It has received scrutiny for security incidents in which people were able to pass through its system without proper identification.[2] It has also been subject to ethical criticism for enabling wealthier flyers who can afford its service to bypass security lines without speeding up the security process as a whole.[3][4]

History

Origin and founders

Steven Brill and Ajay Amlani were original owners of Clear, a subsidiary of Verified Identity Pass, founded in 2003. Ajay Amlani left the company in 2006 to pursue another identity technology company named YOU Technology.

Corporate affairs

Business model

The business model of Clear involves partnerships with airports, with the company sharing a portion of its revenue with these entities. For example, Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) receives 12.5% of Clear's revenue generated at the airport, while San Francisco International Airport (SFO) and Chicago's O'Hare and Midway International Airport receive similar percentages.[11]

While Clear can expedite the security screening process for its customers, the effectiveness of TSA's PreCheck program has increased in recent years. In some cases, PreCheck may offer comparable or even faster screening times, potentially reducing the perceived value of Clear's services.[11]

Patents

The company has received patents for "physical token-less security screening using biometrics", which allows a person to be identified using their individual and distinctive biometric identity that the company creates.[12] The company has been successful in filing and receiving several patents throughout the years. On February 4, 2020, the company was granted the ability to ticket people through their biometric identities. Before this patent, the company was also granted two patents on January 14, 2020, to conduct pre-identification before an individual approached the stationed device and to use individual biometric identities to expedite interactions with people in the close vicinity. To simplify and expedite the process even further, on December 31, 2019, the company was granted a patent to use mobile devices in enrolling into the system.

Clear has partnerships with the European company Oberthur Technologies. Oberthur provides Clear with identification cards encoded with information that is beyond a normal ID card. They follow the NIST standard FIPS 201 (Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 201) for Personal Identity Verification (PIV), a requirement for all U.S. government employees and contractors.[13]

Marketing and collaborations

Clear has partnerships with airlines and stadiums. The airline currently partners with Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Alaska Airlines.[14][15][16] This includes partnerships with Major League Baseball and National Football League.[17][18] CLEAR has also partnered with Lyft which grants people a 3-month free trial to test out Clear and gives them a $20 voucher for Lyft customers to use towards a trip to any airport.[19]

Revenue

The company charges its customers $209 per year for a premium program named CLEAR Plus, however, it can be lowered if the user is a member of Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus, or holds an American Express Centurion, Platinum, or Green Card. This membership allows them to potentially skip long lines, whether they are at a stadium, an arena, or an airport.[25] By expanding and diversifying their locations, Clear also receives additional revenue from sports teams, who pay licensing fees.[26]

trading name	CLEAR
former name	Verified Identity Pass, Inc. AlClear, LLC
type	Public
traded as	nyse: YOU S&P 600 component
industry	Identity verification
hq location city	New York, New York
hq location country	U.S.
num locations	55+ airports, stadiums, and other venues
num locations year	2024
area served	United States
products	CLEAR Plus TSA PreCheck Enrollment Provided by CLEAR
services	Identity Verification Platform
revenue	US$770 million (2024)
net income	US$-170 million (2024)
assets	US$1.19 billion (2024)
equity	US$238 million (2024)
founded	2012
founders	Caryn Seidman-Becker Ken Cornick
num employees	4,022
num employees year	2024
website	clearme.com
footnotes	‡R1R‡

History

Origin and founders

2010s

2020s

Corporate affairs

Business model

Patents

Marketing and collaborations

Revenue

Reception

Security incidents

Ethical criticism

References