Biometric Data Cards - Clear

Biometric Data Cards made by 'Clear' are already available if you wish to 'fly through' airport security. But is the data card really safe?

Apparently over 40,000 people have already enrolled in the security program that allows passengers to sweep through airport security lines quickly. The card houses information such as; your driver's license details, your fingerprints, your photograph, your iris, home address or address over the last 5 years, your social security number or if you are a non US resident your alien identification number.

Also your credit card number is included in the technology; all this is priced at $99.99. The scheme was rolled out in early 2008 but is still only in the trial stages in much of the world.

At the present time not all airports have adopted the 'Clear' card, but it is only a matter of time before the program is rolled out everywhere.

It seems as if the card may work at first glance and could be the perfect gadget as the basis for governments to take a look at before adopting the technology in their own security programs, which would more or less be the same principle but probably house more information about yourself.

The question arises though about just how safe is a biometrics data card and if it does have the potential to make terrorism easier or harder.

The fact that terrorists have been completely clear of having done anything wrong in the past and virtually invisible to detection, being that they were not on any government list as suspicious; makes one wonder if the card could be used in terrorist activity.

One scenario could be a terrorist makes a successful application and purchases a card. He or she has some kind of undetectable substance that flies them through the first line of security at the x-ray machines and into the airport terminal having only had there card swiped, but no pad down from a security official that unknowingly didn't do a pad down because the card data was accurate. The terrorist then triggers the device which is a chemical agent that contains some kind of poison.

This is only a speculative scenario but lapses in security can happen even with the most stringent of security measures at an airport, so what does actually make devices such as the 'Clear' card more secure if a terrorist has no regard for his own life let alone anyone elses?

My personal opinion is the card has a long way to go before proving safe. Any gimmick that apparently speeds up the whole process of security at an airport has got to be looked as a dodging full security checks.

I for one do not want security of other people or me on my flight or any other flight from a particular airport. Isn't that what security is all about? Safety!

Why would a person want to compromise there safety at an airport simply because they want to have a cup of coffee in the terminal before getting on there fight?

Security is meant to be as such; secure and slower as to make passengers and flights safer.

The fact that we still have people who wish to be sped through airport lines because they are impatient beggars belief. I would have thought people would have learned lessons from tragedies such as 9/11 and the fact people have still been caught in the act of trying to get on planes with devices made to kill.

The fact that a laptop containing data from 'Clear' cards was stolen recently will only bring more security questions to mind.

This is not to say that the 'Clear' card does not have its benefits, it may be that it does house accurate information about a person which could help identify individuals who could pose other security risks and could stop criminals not involved in terrorism from traveling in theory. But I cannot foresee how it would stop an unknown terrorist in his or her tracks.

Time will only tell with the hope that the technology can reduce security risks in the future; but until there is absolute security in airports through biometrics and the like I'm not completely convinced. Source: highbeam.com, boingboing.net.