Overnight, the Clear Registered Traveler Program ceased operation.  I do travel by air 5-10 times per year, and had considered the program to speed my visits through airports.  There were three main reasons why I didn’t, and I wonder if they are reasons why they have had to cease operation.

1. There weren’t Clear lanes at every airport I travel to; the only way this system could be cost effective for me would be if it worked everywhere.
2. As mentioned at the Consumerist, the Clear lanes just provide shorter lines; you still were subject to all the security checkpoint hassles.
3. My home airport, Dulles International, opened the Black Diamond lanes: basically the same as Clear without the fee.

In addition to the $199/year charge, enrolling in Clear required presentation of two IDs, your social security number, and the capture of your fingerprints and retinal scan. Clear lost (and found) a laptop last year, and although their privacy policy (pdf) indicates that all personal information is always stored and transmitted encrypted, it doesn’t indicate what algorithm is used or how key management is performed. (Remember, ROT13 is an encryption algorithm…)  Biometrics are the only identification factor that you can’t have revoked and reissued, so giving mine up to both a private company and the Transportation Security Administration to save perhaps 15 minutes didn’t seem like a good idea.

The privacy policy also indicates that personal information is removed from their system automatically after 90 days if you are no longer a Clear member. It is not yet clear if the cessation of operation that occurred overnight will trigger this data removal event. It is also not clear if the TSA ever gives up your data which Clear shares.  All told, if I had been a Clear member, I would seriously examine tools for detecting and preventing identity theft for a while.