Pay $80, hijack a plane?

Well, it looks like the biometric age has finally arrived. Coming soon, passengers at Orlando International Airport can obtain a biometric ID card that grants them speed-through service and the ability to bypass pesky security pat-downs. All that's required is a clean background check and an easy 80 bucks.

Beginning June 21, passengers will be able to enroll in the Clear Registered Traveler Program, which promises to get "you through security faster and to your gate sooner." The "Clear" cards are the brainchild of Steven Brill, CEO of Verified Identity Pass, a private company that has been contracted to work with the Orlando airport. To get a card, travelers must submit themselves to fingerprint and iris scans, a background check by the Department of Homeland Security, and pay an annual fee of $79.95. In return, Clear Card holders will be sped through security in a special "ClearLane" and are guaranteed they will avoid "selectee" status, meaning they won't go through the random body and bag searches that regular travelers are subject to.

Maybe it's just me, but this idea seems ludicrous. I'm no fan of random searches at the airport (and you won't hear me argue that the current system is flawless), but the idea behind them is sound. If airport security personnel begin profiling certain passengers, potential terrorists only need to circumvent that profile in order to skate through security. As author Bruce Schneier told The Associated Press, "Everyone complains: 'Why are you frisking grandmas?' But if you don't frisk grandmas, that's who (terrorists) are going to pick to carry bombs." So now is Orlando's airport opening up a potential vulnerability by establishing a group of people who won't be thoroughly checked before boarding a plane? Absolutely. And they're doing it at what cost?

I've always felt that a world like those portrayed in "1984" and "Gattaca" is possible, maybe even inevitable. But I've often wondered how society could possibly move from a state of concern for protecting privacy to one in which so much privacy has been relinquished. I think I got my answer today. Before, I might have figured citizens would be willing to give up an element of privacy in the name of national security and overall safety. But if the Clear Card service takes off--and I'm confident it will--it means people are willing to sacrifice their own privacy for the simple ability to avoid standing in a line. Here begins our desensitization to the biometric world. I just wish I could believe it would make people safer.