Verification Process In total, the TSA raised concerns about almost 49,000 Clear customers who were enrolled despite facial-recognition software flagging them as non-matches, and concluded its broader methods were inherently inferior to how the government checks travelers' IDs, the people said.

The "problem" with CLEAR from a TSA and legislative perspective is centered on security identity verification and "line jumping" optics. In recent years, there have been a few high-profile incidents where individuals used fraudulent IDs to sign up for CLEAR, prompting the TSA to require more frequent "random ID checks" even for CLEAR members. This has led to the TSA "Next Generation" requirements, which mandate that CLEAR upgrade its technology to transmit digital identity data directly to TSA's systems. Furthermore, there is a "political" friction: many travelers and some lawmakers argue that allowing a private company to "sell" access to the front of the security line creates a "two-tier" system that undermines the perceived fairness of government-run security. Consequently, the TSA has been moving toward more biometric integration (facial recognition) at standard checkpoints, which could eventually make CLEAR's "kiosk-first" model redundant if the government's own systems become equally fast and secure.