You might have noticed a company called Clear, when you last passed through an airport. They’re a private operation that will sell you a fast pass through the security lines, provided that you give them lots of personal information in advance so they can perform a background check on you (if that sounds like a cheap way for terrorists to sort out whether they’re on any lists, well . . . we’ll get to that another time). This, then, is a “security” company that someone at TSA is apparently thinks competent enough to delegates security decisions to, as well as collect and store lots of personal information.
You know the punch line already, don’t you?
Clear lost a laptop with the personal information of 33,000 members on it. None of it encrypted. Oh, but don’t worry, they found it! Where? In the same office from which it was reported lost.
So many of these “security” programs strike me as much like the bridge trolls we used to find in children’s stories. Bridge trolls are, of course, just extortionists. The put themselves between where you are and where you need to go, and demand a price to let you pass. Many people paid, because the bridge trolls were dangerous enough to do damage to you. But all of them ultimately turn out to be not that bright and are eventually shown for the dumb brutes that they are, usually by some enterprising kid who just doesn’t buy into the fear. Clear is just another bridge troll.
Mark Brooks
for a moment there, I thought you were describing legislators.
HOD = Bridge trolls
MB
That’s about right, Mark. Except the HoD has the potential to be something else. Clear and those like it? Not so much.
Mike@Blueweeds
I was recently invited to join Clear. Instinctively I declined. Now I know why.
Mark Brooks
This is too eerily similar to recently (in the last few years) when the DOD lost at least one laptop with sensitive information about veterans, their medical care, and other private information. (in the hundreds of thousands of records.)
I can’t remember what happened to that one. Maybe someone found it and said, “All clear, we found our ass with both hands now!”
It’s clear that if you want to keep information private, don’t give it to anyone. However, I do need to go to the doctor once in a while, since I am no spring chicken.