What happens to travelers' data after Clear's demise?

By Kelly Yamanouchi

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Months after the shutdown of Clear, a company that promised a speedy trip through airport security to fee-paying members, officials and lawmakers are debating what the government should do with Clear customers’ data, including fingerprints and iris scans.

U.S. House Homeland Security committee chairman Bennie Thompson and ranking member Peter King wrote a letter last week to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to express “grave concern” about the Transportation Security Administration’s plans to have participants’ data deleted from the Registered Traveler Central Information Management System database.

Clear retains a list that can be sold to another company in the Registered Traveler program. But Fred Fischer, managing partner of FLO Corp., wants to relaunch FLO’s Registered Traveler operations and allow former Clear customers to transfer their data using the central database.

The database, maintained by the American Association of Airport Executives for TSA, was set up to allow inter operability of multiple Registered Traveler providers, but there are no longer multiple operations.

Thompson and King wrote that they believe removing the data from the central database “could have a potential negative impact” on the restoration of Registered Traveler operations.

The letter also said security benefits envisioned for the Registered Traveler program “have not been fully realized” and “should be further explored.”

Clear shut down its operations in Atlanta and around the country in June, about a year after the Registered Traveler program transitioned from a TSA pilot program into a private sector venture.