Slashdot Mirror
Out of Business, Clear May Sell Customer Data
narramissic writes "Earlier this week, the Clear airport security screening service ceased operations, leaving many to wonder what would become of the personal information, including credit card numbers, fingerprints, and iris scans, of Clear's customers. And now we know. The information could be sold to the provider of a similar service. Until then, Clear has erased PC hard drives at its airport screening kiosks and is wiping employee computers, but the information is retained on its central databases (managed by Lockheed Martin). Clear customer David Maynor, who is CTO with Errata Security in Atlanta, wants Clear to delete his information but that isn't happening, the company said in a note posted to its Web site Thursday. 'They had your social security information, credit information, where you lived, employment history, fingerprint information,' said Maynor. 'They should be the only ones who have access to that information.'"
More kdawson FUD?
As someone who stood in line and watched well off folks who could fork up the cash and fly by - rather than forcing the influential to face the stupidity that is the tsa so that maybe something could happen to change it - I can't say I feel too upset for them. I saw a guy sign up for it when I flew last month- people that just forked over the $200, lost their data and never really didn't get to use the service must really be mad.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I'm confident that Clear had a customer agreement. Any idiot that would provide all of that data to an commercial entity without strict privacy rules in place deserves what they get.
Clear customer David Maynor, who is CTO with Errata Security in Atlanta, wants Clear to delete his information but that isn't happening
Shouldn't the CTO of what I assume is a company involved in security know better? Should he have read the fine print before signing up?
This was a bad idea from the start and people should be doubly wary of handing over so much personal information in the future to any organization that has no good reason to exist.
Nullius in verba
Only the sort of people that would hand over their information to a company like this would be surprised to find out that they're going to sell it.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
For those folks who trust private enterprises more than governments. WTF did you expect?
"If you want to know what happens to you when you die, go look at some dead stuff."
"They should be the only ones who have access to that information"
Only if they're going to do what they said with that information - make it faster to clear airport security. If they don't, I want my identity back.
Most of the stuff on
Do extra, voluntary action to cooperate with the police state in legitimizing the "papers please" nonsense, and get exactly what you deserve.
It started as a simple excuse to lock you into your ticket purchases. It still has that negative effect, and not a single positive. After all, matching ID to ticket had been done for decades leading to, and of course on, 9/11.
If the CTO of a corporation didn't realize a private company, contracted by the government, would not delete his personal information at his request, he shouldn't be a CTO.
ALL data, in whatever form, once in the hands of the government, its entities, subsidiaries and contractors, will exist essentially forever.
Let the age of Total Information Awareness rock on!
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I'd be curious to know what exactly the contracts they had with them stipulate. My guess is it's something along the longs of we own your information once you pass it to us. Ooopppss - guess you really should read those things before signing. Anyone actually seen it?
I'm confused. Slashdotters are vehemently pro-piracy and anti-copyright in every article. Content creators don't have rights to their work, and anyone going after infringers is evil.
Except in GPL violation articles. In those articles, suddenly content creator rights are of the utmost importance, and the GPL should be upheld under the law even though it's a copyright license complete with usage restrictions.
Do Slashdotters realize how self-serving they are? That they're against copyright when it benefits them in getting free stuff off of PirateBay but in favor of copyright when it protects their precious GPL code? You can't have it both ways. If you're don't like copyrights, then it should be okay for me to sell GPL code as a modified, closed-source binary without any legal consequences.
Could it be that most of you are only against copyrights because you don't want to lose the free ride of your favorite P2P networks, so you rant about copyright law as an excuse to justify your behavior?
According to the press release, and the statement on Clear's website, the information would only be sold to another company engaged in the same business as Clear and approved by the Transportation Safety Administration. I don't know whether that was a stipulation of Clear's contract with the TSA, though I doubt Clear would tie its hands this way just out of a sense of civic duty.
When handing someone (or some company) your information, always keep in mind a shift in "company strategy" or PHB change can hurt you. Always judge by capability (what could happen if your information is sold,) and not intention, for intention can change quickly and without warning.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
didn't realize a private company [...] would not delete his personal information at his request
Given that their policy states that they will (would?) delete it upon membership cancellation, this seems like they're not complying with their policies. Unless they consider these people are still somehow considered members.
What's the contract say? If it says the company can do this, and you agreed to it, then where's the beef?
Truth, Justice. Or the American Way.
You gave away information of the most sensitive kind about yourself. Information that even kids in primary school know enough not to give up. All just so you didn't have to stand in line. A few of you just so you could point and laugh at the mass of people dealing with the lines. Well I guess everyone else is laughing at you now. Dumbasses. Well hopefully this will be enough to open your eyes in the future. Makes me glad I'm on the no-fly list. Not that I would fly under the current circumstances. I just don't see myself paying to be treated like a criminal. The whole screening processes isn't too different from being admitted into prison. I can't believe people pay for that. Soon it will be extended in some manner to public transportation and for entry into malls.
If you were a chicken, and you saw Mexico coming down the street, what would you do?
Surely the US can enforce similar legislation, what is so private as fingerprints should have the strongest possible protection, regardless whether it's kept by government or private institutions.
"The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
What is much more worrying is that personal data can be sold at all. OK, so here people have given their details voluntarily. Often that is not a reasonable option, except for doing everything in cash.
What should happen is that personal data can NEVER be sold.
Obviously that can cause problems. What if the company is sold as a whole? What if the company is ripped apart by its new owner and they sell everything, except the data?
I would think that if it is used to continue a service or contract I previously had, then you can use that. The moment you do not provide me any service, the personal data must be 'given back' or destroyed, so it is not longer usable by the company.
Desrtuction of the data should be done in, say, one year, so the company can still try to convince you to re-start the service.
This must be obviously regulated in some way, but the principal should be that the data belongs to the person, not to the company who stores that data. You can use that data for a specific reason and nothing else.
In other words, privacy laws must become much more pointed towards the people and away from the companies.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
As someone who stood in line and watched well off folks who could fork up the cash and fly by
Oh yeah, they were so much better off that you, having the fantastic cash reserves to be able to afford a whole $99 a year ($199 at the end) to have shorter security lines for frequent trips!
How much do you spend on your internet again? Oh but you say, I use that every day! Well what about people who had to fly every week...
Your post is nothing more than a case of reverse elitism, proclaiming how much better a man you are because you sucked it up and stood in a line. Well I say, foo on that - if there's a way to make security lines a somewhat quantifiable chunk of time let people take it who need it. The great thing about Clear was how non-elitist it was, anyone could afford to sign up if they traveled much and felt like it was worthwhile.
I was very close to signing up myself, and if another provider comes on line I probably will even though I don't own a single yacht or private island. In fact I am so poor I have but one next gen console instead of all three. Doesn't anyone value their time anymore? If you take even just ten trips a year by plane it seems well worthwhile to me to be able to show up an hour later because you know roughly how long security will take every time you go.
To keep up that air of self-satisfied smugness, the next time you go glance over at the first class/premier checkin line. Those people still get to go ahead of you only they do so by paying a few thousand dollars for a ticket, not the price of two video games a year. So you can still think how awesome you are because you are standing in line with the "real" people unlike Them.
It does annoy me they are selling the data (I don't think they should be allowed to transfer that without owner consent) but it wouldn't stop me for signing up with the next iteration. A service like this is needed for real world travelers.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Errata ... A list of errors, which have now been corrected.
aka: Windows NT 4.0, 2000, XP, 7.
No, I did not forget Vista. And sadly, I will not forget it for a very long time.
Unless they consider these people are still somehow considered members.
Of course they're* still members. You think just because a company goes bankrupt you're no longer part of their services? Oh no. It's like being part of AOL. Once you're in, you're in for life!
*Attention lazy slobs. Note the correct usage of they're. Not their or there. If you think you're** being cute, stabbing at the man for having rules and regulations, or thinking you're on the cutting edge of a new language paradigm, you're not.
**Attention lazy slobs. Note the correct usage of you're. Not your.
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
They claim they will do X f they fail. Fact of the matter, of they are in Bankruptsiy, they do what the judge allows and turinf of od deleting anything seen as an asset will never be allowed.
Steam Claims they will open up the games if the go out of business, but in reality they won't be allowed to by the courts.
This is true of any company claiming they will do something if they start to fail.
In the real world, it's complete nonsense.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
It's informative and on-topic.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
The whole business that Clear is in is basically extorting bribes from travelers. They're not providing any actual added security by collecting the information, but the TSA folks let them wait in shorter lines and treat them more politely while still randomly searching baggage. The TSA's not even extorting the bribes directly - they're making a wholesale sweetheart deal with a political supporter who gets to extort the bribes retail. Brill, by the way, is one of the founders of CourtTV (aka lots of cop shows.)
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
I had a similar experience several years ago. I had built a personnel database for all of our call center workers. Held name, address, SSAN, when and why they quit, etc, etc.
We quit that portion of the business, and sold the servers and sublet the office space to a new company. The personnel db was part of the deal, including all the data. *Most, but not all*, of our employees got hired with the new company.
I was instructed to send the new company an install disk, and all of the data.
I told our IT VP that, no...I'll send them the empty shell, because not all of our people work for the new company. They have no reason to hold that info on people that do not work for them.
They pushed. I pushed back.
Eventually, it got down to "ok...I'll send them the entire thing. If, and only if we have a signed letter from legal, HR, and you, Mr CTO, saying this is OK, and absolving the company, and me personally, of any future actions regarding this data".
I ended up sending them the blank shell. They can reenter the data as needed.
Agree! This whole thing of adding the TSA stupidity, and then saying, "We're making you this GREAT offer that for only $$ you can go back to the way things should be!" I was one of those who stood in line while others whizzed through the Clear-Prepaid line. I can't say I blame those Clear'd people, though --for some, it might well be worth it to pay to get rid of stupidity, although it doesn't mean that they like or agree with it.
Clear Co. deserved to go out of business. So does TSA, but that'll never happen. :P
404555974007725459910684486621289147856453481154 in hex is "You sank my Battleship?"
[GPG key in journal]
Are you ready for the census 2010? Are you proud you legally bought your firearm and are on the registered database? What will you do when mandatory vaccinations come next (hint: swine flu pandemic level 6 by the WHO) and your on the list because of the census records and know to be armed because you registered your firearms? Extra credit for those who can tell us what happened last time the USA had mandatory vaccinations.
Clear is a domestic enemy. Just like the DHS and all this other fucking bullshit.
They SHOULD make everyone go through the same BS, even on PRIVATE PLANES, corporate jets, all of them. Let no one be "special". Everyone =politicians, cops, official government bureaucrats, military generals, rich fatcats, all of them, not just the plebes. Get on a plane and fly, you need to go through all the same routine.
Like was said, we won't get rid of the stupid security theater until everyone is inconvenienced enough and complains enough to get changes forced through. That's just nonsense they don't, "everyone is equal, but some are more equal than others" is the height of hypocrisy and just more of them tards trying to bring back an aristocratic class.
so if that's "reverse elitist drivel" what do we call your response?
My response outlines how the world works, and the fact that anyone in reality could afford to pay for Clear (anyone flying anywhere anyway). I'm pointing out he's angry at the elite, when the program is not even *for* the elite - it's for everyone.
So I tell you all how it actually works, and get modded down. That's Slashdot I guess, when reality doesn't fit the meme such as all privilege is arrogance and not optimization... Oh wait, I thought people were actually technical here. I guess that used to be true.
The original poster should also write an angry response about how his user threads don't always have greater priority than system processes, and how he's be glad to see that damn elitist scheduler out of the system.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
100 bucks and as much personal and private information that they can strip from you before they shut-down and sell off as well.
So then you agree with the RIAA that a guy with 10 songs on his HD should pay a billion dollar fine?
After all, you are claiming that because information I provided them is sold I have "lost money". Huh?
I haven't lost anything. I would have lost my yearly fee, but nothing beyond that - my data being somewhere else does not automatically cost me anything.
If it fell into the wrong hands - possibly, but then I also take a similar risk just buying a plane ticket or a meal at a restaurant. This situation is not really that unique.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
They SHOULD make everyone go through the same BS, even on PRIVATE PLANES, corporate jets, all of them.
As any kind of technical person, here is where you should be ashamed of yourself. You are proposing an insane level of restriction on a persons own property (for those with private planes), in order to achieve an end that you arbitrarily demand is correct. It's like saying anyone to get a drivers license should be able to drive anything from a scooter to a hundred ton gravel truck.
Secondarily, you should be ashamed of yourself for stepping so far out of reality. You and I know, what you propose would never happen in a billion years. Where there are humans there is privilege, in any society.
So given that unshakable fundamental FACT of humanity, why not allow everyone to have the same privilege if they wish? What do you have against the common man that you would wish to take away a benefit that can give them some of their life back that would otherwise be wasted?
Shame on you sir, and all who think as you do.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If the CTO of a corporation didn't realize a private company, contracted by the government, would not delete his personal information at his request, he shouldn't be a CTO.
ALL data, in whatever form, once in the hands of the government, its entities, subsidiaries and contractors, will exist essentially forever.
Oh no! The government now has his Social Security Number!
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
it already is insane, I'm totally against all the security theater big brother BS surrounding the dubious cliams of the government's fairy tale version of the events of 9-11 2001 and the resultant crap patriot act and homeland security and flying on airliners nonsense pseudo security and etc. And now we have people demanding "VIP" treatment as long as they pay more or are rich enough to own their own planes or something else. I call shenanigans on that. If it is such a threat, then everyone needs to go through the screening. I would *rather* we went back to the way it was with just a few more common sense practices, but it ain't my call there, I just think it is the height of hypocrisy and goes to show how stupid their alleged security is when they have so many exemptions and some people feel they "deserve" to be treated "special" because, in essence, they have more money to burn than other folks, or they are somehow more privileged because of the busy work government job or connections.
That's the only shame, that so many go along with it, this creeping fascism. The slow boiled frog.. I do NOT fly at all, and will not, for any reason, until such a time as they stop the nonsense. You want to cast the shame blame, here ya go, shame on the folks who put up with it for any reason. Shuck and jive and keep you head bowed and don't disrespect your betters, knave! Grovel at your master's boots and eat the shit sandwhich offered and be thankful they allow it. People are wont to use the word sheeple, normally I don't, but when it comes to flying and people who put up with that crap EGADS where is your (collective "your") self respect and dignity? A freeking "no fly" list? What the hell is that all about, an enemies of the state list, guilty because some star chamber says you are? People who fly, by going along with it, are giving de facto approval to such nonsense. There's some more of your shame right there.
The entire public should have said HELL NO and boycotted airline travel until the ridiculous rules got trashed. They should stand around in huge groups, point their fingers at some badged moron and his boss and just laugh! Just laugh hysterically at the stupid monkeys and their freekin fasicst crap. Then all get on the horn to the airline execs and say "no flying until these dumbass rules get changed, which means no more fat check and cushy job, sucks to be you mr. airline boss or investor, bye". You will NOT ever see an airliner hijacked like that anymore, the rest of the people would overwhelm any group of hijackers, they just would. there's no need for this crap like exists today except to get the sheeps conditionede to take even MORE crap down the road. and anyone who can't see that just ain't lookin' or just plain don't care, one or the other. It's to soften you up, get you used to always be afraid, you have been terrorized into obedience and to accepting an "elite" class of humans over you, your "masters".
Instead of a righteous boycott, which is what should have happened, nope, most of the scared and terrorized people (even if they don't admit they were terrorized) just went along with getting their wives and children felt up by official pervs, get x rayed, have to be humiliated by drooling security "agents" and all that other crap..well..except for the "special" ones who can afford to fly private, they are too leet to stand in line like the "commoners".
And the others, who like me, refuse to be a part of it, by boycotting their nonsense.
Shame on society for putting up with this and all the other big brother bullshit that has gone down the past several years. There's your real shame, the whole situation is a sorry-ass shame.
And as long as you let some people be "special", where they get the VIP treatment, and get away with not going through the same crap, it will just get worse. You need people with some juice, with power and influence, along with everyone else, to help bring about constructive change. If they have to go through the same crap, that
Is anyone surprised at this? It seems like business as usual. I'm not sure why this exists as a news story.
"As long as there's a reasonable expectation of a decent privacy policy..."
But I DO NOT have a reasonable expectation of decent privacy policy. It's standard procedure, when a company goes bankrupt, they sell off ALL ASSETS. A few companies have a policy to destroy private info when they go bankrupt (and the few cos with this policy that went bankrupt have followed it.)
Banks, credit card cos, hospitals, insurance cos, they are heavily regulated. Everyone else? They can do whatever they want with your info.
Giving that much info to a company is stupid.