Current:Home > FinanceTSA probes Clear after it let through a passenger carrying ammo -MarketLink
TSA probes Clear after it let through a passenger carrying ammo
View
Date:2025-04-17 23:57:35
Traveler verification program Clear allowed a passenger traveling with ammunition to breeze through its security screening last year, according to a Bloomberg report.
The passenger was stopped by the Transportation Security Administration and later found to also be traveling under a false identity, according to the report, which suggests the private security company flubbed its screening process.
Similar to the TSA's PreCheck program, Clear Secure provides passengers a service aimed at speeding up the pre-flight screening process so that they can spend less time waiting in line before flights. Clear verifies passengers at roughly 50 airports across the U.S. using their fingerprints and iris scans, letting them skip having their identity cards scanned by TSA. Travelers enrolled in the program must still remove their coats and shoes when going through security.
Photos of passengers' chins
The Bloomberg report alleges that the facial-recognition system upon which Clear relied to enroll new members was not secure, citing people familiar with a TSA investigation into the company. The program registered prospective passengers based on photos that sometimes only showed people's chins, the tops of their heads or their shoulders, Bloomberg reported.
The system also depended on employees not making any mistakes, according to the report.
When its facial recognition system flagged customers, Clear employees were tasked with manually verifying their identities.
The screening company did acknowledge a July 2022 incident that the company blamed on "a single human error" in a statement on its website Friday. The incident had nothing to do with the company's technology, Clear added.
"We took immediate action to end the practice that led to the human error and took corrective action to fully re-enroll the miniscule percentage of our customers enrolled under this process," Clear said in the statement.
In June, the TSA demanded that Clear customers have their identities verified by its own agents. That requirement has not gone into effect, according to Bloomberg.
Clear also disputed the accuracy of Bloomberg's reporting in its Friday statement, saying, "Bloomberg published a story that inaccurately characterizes Clear's robust security and our work with the TSA in keeping airports safe."
Clear did not immediately respond to CBS MoneyWatch's request for comment.
Millions of passengers screened
Clear touted its track record of TSA verifying 4.7 Clear passenger IDs in the past six months without issue. In its 13 years of operation, Clear has verified 130 million passengers. It currently has more than 16 million members.
In a statement to CBS MoneyWatch, TSA said it is working with the company to ensure that it complies with its security requirements for passenger screening processes.
- In:
- Transportation Security Administration
veryGood! (6)
Related
- Former Danish minister for Greenland discusses Trump's push to acquire island
- Horoscopes Today, September 26, 2023
- Taiwan factory fire kills at least 5 and injures 100 others
- Peloton's Robin Arzón Wants to Help You Journal Your Way to Your Best Life
- Rylee Arnold Shares a Long
- Hunter Biden sues Rudy Giuliani and another lawyer over accessing and sharing of his personal data
- Film academy gifts a replacement of Hattie McDaniel’s historic Oscar to Howard University
- California governor signs law raising taxes on guns and ammunition to pay for school safety
- Where will Elmo go? HBO moves away from 'Sesame Street'
- Deion Sanders discusses opposing coaches who took verbal shots at him: 'You know why'
Ranking
- DeepSeek: Did a little known Chinese startup cause a 'Sputnik moment' for AI?
- 'The Creator' review: Gareth Edwards' innovative sci-fi spectacular is something special
- Writers will return to work on Wednesday, after union leadership votes to end strike
- Lionel Messi in limbo ahead of Inter Miami's big US Open Cup final. Latest injury update
- Newly elected West Virginia lawmaker arrested and accused of making terroristic threats
- An Abe Lincoln photo made during his 1858 ascendancy has been donated to his museum in Springfield
- Swiss indict a former employee of trading firm Gunvor over bribes paid in Republic of Congo
- As many as a dozen bodies found scattered around northern Mexico industrial hub of Monterrey
Recommendation
Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
Francesca Farago Reveals Her Emotional Experience of Wedding Dress Shopping
University of Wisconsin regents select Mankato official to serve as new Parkside chancellor
North Carolina splits insurance commissioner’s job from state fire marshal’s responsibilities
Bodycam footage shows high
Car bombing at Somali checkpoint kills at least 15, officials say
UEFA moves toward partially reintegrating Russian teams and match officials into European soccer
State trooper indicted, accused of 'brutally beating' 15-year-old who played ding dong ditch prank