Dangers of Biometric Databases and CLEAR's new focus plus more on this Tech Talk with Craig Peterson Podcast

Craig discusses CLEAR and why what they are doing now is NOT a good idea. These biometric databases can be hacked just like any other database.  The Danger is - there is no way to guarantee 100% security of your data and if it gets hacked -- You can't change your biometrics!

For more tech tips, news, and updates, visit - CraigPeterson.com

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Automated Machine-Generated Transcript:

Craig Peterson (2): [00:00:00] Hey, who has your biometric information? Is it really a problem? You've got your phone, you unlock with your face or your, maybe your fingerprint, your thumbprint. Where's that information all going? What is CLEAR doing now?  In case you're not aware of it CLEAR is a company that has been taking biometric information and using it at airports has got about 5 million members.

You're listening to Craig Peterson. Thanks for joining us today.

Clear who are they? If you've seen the signs, you've seen the people that walk through CLEAR, either use an eye scan called an Iris scan or a fingerprint scan they're used in airports, also used in stadiums.

Well, April this year came as quite a wake-up call for our CLEAR, because the air travel industry just completely fell off a cliff, didn't it. You had the Coronavirus scare spreading worldwide airline passengers just stopped flying. It's just crazy.

Some airplanes were turned around and mid to air and sent back to where they came from. Because borders were closed at the very last minute. Then there was the grave reality that hit in April of this year because basically, nobody was flying. Revenue was plummeting, empty airports and airlines are reporting a 95% drop in travelers. Absolutely. Huge. It's crazy. Crazy to think about just how devastating it was. Not just for the airline industry, but for related industries.

Well, people hadn't been using CLEAR to travel. My friend, Dean he's sworn by CLEAR because he could just walk right in and walk onto the plane. It was that simple for him.

He also uses one of these luggage transportation services, you pay like a hundred bucks a pop and they pick up his luggage from his house they ship it to the hotel he's going to be at and he never has to touch it.  He literally just walks on board with the book or whatever it is he wants. Man, am I envious. Okay.

So there are about 5 million people who paid past tense for CLEAR's service. It costs them about 180 bucks a year and they would go to these kiosks, that TSA, about 60 airports and sports arenas had these things and it verified their identity. They were able to then skip these long lines at the airport security and off they went. Absolutely phenomenal.

Well, it looks like based on a report that came out here from a company called one zero, who looked at some public records that CLEAR's income was about halved. This surprises me that it wasn't 90, 95% drop in revenue knew, but some people just kept going at $190.

One zero says that they've had a look at more than 3,500 documents and emails and they have found the CLEAR is now using the pandemic scare to pivot. What it's doing now is instead of just being at the airlines in the stadiums, they want to be the clearinghouse for biometric information everywhere. Absolutely everywhere. It wants to be the identity verification platform. Covering every moment of our lives, every day in our lives. They've already got tons of information from these public sources, from these companies that sell our information. They've also got information on people, customers who used CLEAR to buy at concessions, enter the sports stadiums, and they are now starting to explore if not already selling that data for marketing purposes. Isn't that something?

 By the way, you can get a free CLEAR identity for stadiums. So you don't have to pay if you're just using it to go into some stadium. So this is very, very concerning.

I got a great article on this from one zero.medium.com. Up on my website @craigpetersohn.com. If you want to get into a little bit more.

 CLEAR considers itself a platform company. They've got something, they call a health pass they introduced in May this year. It's using CLEAR's identity verification service and attaches your personal health information to the profile. This gets really scary.

Remember I said here before the break that you should be going to "Have I been pwned", I've said that many times, and if you need a link to that, just email [email protected]. I'll be glad to send it to you. Just the subject line, just say radio show. If you go there to "Have I been pwned" and you find that your password has been breached, so you just change your password.

What do we do now, if we're registered with CLEAR? If we're a registered traveler? If CLEAR has our facial recognition biometrics? If CLEAR has our fingerprint biometrics? And on and on, and it gets hacked. You cannot change your biometrics. At least that's the whole idea, right?

I am extremely concerned about it, which is why I don't use CLEAR.

Now let's take that same question and let's apply it to our devices because we are using our biometrics to unlock the devices. Right now the Apple iPhones are the best when it comes to facial recognition, there are a number of Samsung models that have been quite easily fooled.

The fingerprint recognition on the older I-phones is quite good. Frankly, some of the Samsung models have been easily defeated for fingerprint recognition.

 First off do go search on your phone model, find out how good it is? How good is the facial recognition? Because you're giving your facial biometrics to the phone. You're giving your fingerprints to the phone. What Apple has done is they put it into something they call the secure enclave. Now, last week I spent a lot of time talking about the T2 chip about TPM, these different types of encryption, and security controls that are on our laptops and on our smartphones.

If you want more about that go to last week's show, you'll find it on Craig peterson.com because I discussed that in-depth. But I'm very concerned about this.

My wife and I both have more than 10 digit passcodes on all of our devices. We use 20 plus character codes, login passwords on our Mac books, and on our desktops as well, just to try and keep it safe. Neither one of us actually trust the type of security you get from fingerprints or elsewhere.

Now, one of my sons, what he does, is he doesn't use this thumbprint. He uses a knuckle. A print on a knuckle. I know some other people that use various private parts, women, and men to identify themselves. Maybe that's a good idea. Maybe it's not. But I would be very cautious here. Be careful with CLEAR. It might be nice to be able to just zoom through the airport. It's one thing if the government has the information, but governments are losing the stuff all the time, they're getting hacked all the time.

That's bad enough but giving it purposely to these companies like CLEAR that really bothers me again, search for your phone online, and in the Apple world, the secure enclave on the phone, that's where your biometric information is kept. It is never ever sent to Apple. Can't say the same about all of these Android devices.

Stick around. You're listening to Craig Peterson and we'll be right back.

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