Clear Secure, Inc.

Trade name	CLEAR
Formerly	Verified Identity Pass, Inc. AlClear, LLC
Company type	Public
Traded as	NYSE:  YOU
Industry	Identity verification
Founded	2010; 14 years ago (2010)
Founders	Caryn Seidman-Becker Ken Cornick
Headquarters	Manhattan, New York , United States of America
Number of locations	55+ airports, stadiums, and other venues (2024)
Area served	United States
Products	CLEAR Plus Reserve powered by CLEAR
Services	Identity Verification Platform
Revenue	US$437 million (2022)
Net income	US$−66 million (2022)
Total assets	US$1.04 billion (2022)
Total equity	US$511 million (2022)
Number of employees	3,056 (December 2022)
Website	clearme.com
Footnotes / references [1]

Clear Secure, Inc. (operating as: CLEAR) is an American technology company that operates biometric travel document verification systems at some major airports and stadiums.

History

Origin and founders

Steven Brill and Ajay Amlani were original owners of Clear, a subsidiary of Verified Identity Pass, founded in 2003. Ajay Amlani left the company in 2006 to pursue another identity technology company named YOU Technology. Steven Brill stepped away from the company in 2008. ^[2] Clear shut down in 2009 after filing for bankruptcy. ^[3]

2010s

Caryn Seidman-Becker purchased CLEAR out of bankruptcy in 2010 with her partner and co-founder Ken Cornick. They relaunched the company in 2012. Clear operates out of its headquarters in Manhattan, New York. ^[4]

2020s

In 2021, Clear went public as Clear Secure, Inc. on the NYSE with the ticker symbol ‘YOU’. ^[5]

In January 2023, Clear celebrated the launch of security lanes at its 50th airport, Raleigh-Durham International Airport. ^[6] It followed that up with new lanes at Kansas City International Airport at the end of February 2023. ^[7]

Security incidents

In 2022, Clear's verification service allowed an airline passenger using a false identity to pass through its system; the passenger was also found by the TSA to be carrying ammunition. The company noted in a formal statement that it was due to "a single human error". The program's facial-recognition system for enrolling new customers was also noted as sometimes relying on inadequate photos such as the chin or shoulder. ^[8]

Two incidents occurred in 2023 where individuals not enrolled in the company's security program were escorted through a TSA security checkpoint without having presented their identification. One of the incidents involved a passenger who had used a boarding pass that was picked out of a trash bin. ^[9]

The incidents have gathered the attention of the House Homeland Security Committee, with members Bennie Thompson and John Katko in December 2022 requesting that the TSA require all passengers, including those using Clear, have their ID verified by TSA. In August 2023 TSA advised the company and participating airports to increase the number of IDs to be checked by a TSA officer. ^[10]

Corporate affairs

Patents

The company has received patents for "physical token-less security screening using biometrics", which allows a person to be identified using their individual and distinctive biometric identity that the company creates. ^[11] The company has been successful in filing and receiving several patents throughout the years. On February 4, 2020, the company was granted the ability to ticket people through their biometric identities. Prior to this patent, the company was also granted two patents on January 14, 2020, to conduct pre-identification before an individual approached the stationed device and to use individual biometric identities to expedite interactions with people in the close vicinity. To simplify and expedite the process even further, on December 31, 2019, the company was granted a patent to use mobile devices in enrolling into the system.

CLEAR has partnerships with the European company Oberthur Technologies. Oberthur provides CLEAR with identification cards encoded with information that is beyond a normal ID card. They follow the NIST standard FIPS 201 (Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 201) for Personal Identity Verification (PIV), a requirement for all U.S. government employees and contractors. ^[12]

Anti-terrorism

In June 2012, CLEAR received certification under the SAFETY Act (Support Anti-Terrorism by Fostering Effective Technologies Act of 2002) by the United States Department of Homeland Security. ^{[13] [14]}

Marketing and collaborations

CLEAR has partnerships with airlines and stadiums. The airline currently partners with Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Alaska Airlines. ^{[15] [16] [17]} This includes partnerships with Major League Baseball and National Football League. ^{[18] [19]} CLEAR has also partnered with Lyft which grants people a 3-month free trial to test out CLEAR and gives them a $20 voucher for Lyft customers to use towards a trip to any airport. ^[20]

In April 2023, CLEAR began offering digital identity verification services for LinkedIn users. ^[21] "Verified" users are able to display a green and blue checkmark on their profile. ^[22]

CLEAR had a former partnership with car rental company Hertz, until the company declared bankruptcy. ^{[23] [24]}

CLEAR is a member of the FIDO Alliance ^[25] and the CARIN Alliance. ^[26]

Revenue

The company charges its customers $189 per year for a premium program named CLEAR Plus, however, it can be lowered if the user is a member of Delta SkyMiles, United MileagePlus, or holds an American Express Centurion, Platinum, or Green Card. This Membership allows them to skip past long lines, no matter if they are at a stadium, an arena, or an airport. ^[27] By expanding and diversifying their locations, CLEAR also receives additional revenue from sports teams, who pay licensing fees. ^[28]

Awards

In June 2019, Clear CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker and President Ken Cornick were given the 2019 EY Entrepreneur Of The Year Award for the New York Region. ^[29]

References