Clear airport cards kaput

The whole idea of FlyClear disturbed me. On the one hand, getting through airports quicker sounds like a great idea. But what sort of message does it send? That you can either suffer through a crappy process, or give up tons of privacy? Do people start looking past the problems with TSA because the norm is to submit yourself to fingerprinting and eye scans?

All in all, I'm quite happy to see Clear go under. Now, the frequent flyers can continue to put pressure on the lunacy of the TSA security process.

Not knowing any specific details, but it makes me think: why do you need a card for this?

Maybe this is the fatal flaw in their business. The UK has a similar system in place on a much larger scale, called, unimaginatively, IRIS. http://www.ukba.homeoffice.gov.uk/managingborders/technology...

It does the same, but all you have to do is look into the scanner, and the gates open.

Privacy and their modus operandi aside, I'm intrigued as to how they expected to survive such a high overhead cost operation with only $100 an year/customer, without any economies of scale or federal govt. support.