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Technology Review is running this story
https://www.technologyreview.com/2024/11/20/1107002/clear-airport-identity-management-biometrics-facial-recognition/ [technologyreview.com] about Clear, a company that is trying to expand from airport expedited-security, to security and ID for many other transactions.
Alt link at, https://archive.ph/2hbgC [archive.ph]

If you’ve ever been through a large US airport, you’re probably at least vaguely aware of Clear. Maybe your interest (or irritation) has been piqued by the pods before the security checkpoints, the attendants in navy blue vests who usher clients to the front of the security line (perhaps just ahead of you), and the sometimes pushy sales pitches to sign up and skip ahead yourself.
[...]
Its position in airports has made Clear Secure, with its roughly $3.75 billion market capitalization, the most visible biometric identity company in the United States. Over the past two decades, Clear has put more than 100 lanes in 58 airports across the US, and in the past decade it has entered 17 sports arenas and stadiums, from San Jose to Denver to Atlanta. Now you can also use its identity verification platform to rent tools at Home Depot, put your profile in front of recruiters on LinkedIn, and, as of this month, verify your identity as a rider on Uber.
[...]
The company that has helped millions of vetted members skip airport security lines is now working to expand its “frictionless,” “face-first” line-cutting service from the airport to just about everywhere, online and off, by promising to verify that you are who you say you are and you are where you are supposed to be. In doing so, CEO Caryn Seidman Becker told investors in an earnings call earlier this year, it has designs on being no less than the “identity layer of the internet,” as well as the “universal identity platform” of the physical world.

All you have to do is show up—and show your face.

It goes on to explain the origins of Clear, rising out of the bankruptcy of earlier biometrics company VIP. Then it finally gets to the major problems of using biometrics for security, and also having one company handle security for many aspects of life.

Well worth a read if you are interested in the future of proving who you are.

ps. Dept. line references, for example, this: https://skepticalinquirer.org/newsletter/soul-theft-through-photography/ [skepticalinquirer.org]

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