Want to breeze through airport security? Hand over some money, and an iris scan
Updated: 10:00 p.m. | Posted: 9:10 a.m.
A new fast-track screening option opens for travelers at the Twin Cities international airport Wednesday. The service lets travelers bypass parts of the security process, for a fee.
The private service offered by New York-based company Clear costs as much as $179 a year, although Delta SkyMiles travelers can get it for $99 a year. Family members of enrollees are also eligible for a discount.
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The company enrolls travelers in a pre-check program that confirms their identity and collects biometric information about them, like fingerprint or iris scans. Kiosks at Terminal 1 will scan eligible travelers and let them bypass the initial waiting line, as well as an initial ID check by Transportation Security Administration personnel. Company officials say it could cut the wait for an ID check to just a "few minutes."
Clear says it has about 850,000 subscribers, not counting those on trial memberships.
Users still have to pass through the rest of the screening process and have their belongings checked like everyone else. Officials at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport said the new service won't cut into the capacity for screening regular travelers or make their wait longer.
The service is partly owned by Delta Air Lines and is available at 21 airports across the country, including in Atlanta, New York, Detroit, Seattle-Tacoma, Dulles, Reagan and Los Angeles, among other places.
Reggie Sing of St. Paul signed up for a complementary subscription to the service "to hopefully get through the lanes a bit faster."
Harry Waters, Jr. of Minneapolis, said the time saved wasn't worth giving up fingerprints and having his eyes and face scanned.
"I'm not crazy about it," he said. "I don't mind waiting in line."
Legal experts and privacy protection organizations say travelers should carefully weigh how comfortable they are with sharing their biometric and other identifying information.
Marc Rotenberg, president and executive director of with the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said Clear has roots in a like-named company that failed about eight years ago and had trouble keeping customer data secure.
At one point, a laptop loaded with such data was stolen. Rotenberg said customers had to get a restraining order to prevent the sale of their biometric identifiers.
But the owners of the current incarnation of Clear insist they will keep customers' data secure and will not sell it or share it with government agencies. Clear says it's a different company under new management.
With Clear, travelers pay for a product they hope will speed them through a system that sometimes becomes overloaded.
Minnesota ACLU legal director Teresa Nelson argues long security lines should be addressed for everyone, and not become a business opportunity.
"You can buy your way through security," she said, "and that's problematic."
Correction (Feb. 23, 2017): Due to an editing error, an earlier version of this story misstated the number of airports that have the Clear service.