一条清晰的优先通道

我是阿伊莎·罗斯科，您正在收听《周日故事》，我们不止关注当日新闻，更为您带来深度报道。正值劳动节周末，幸运的话，您或许正在海滩休闲、小憩或户外烧烤。但若运气不佳，可能像许多人在这个出行高峰周末一样，正站在机场安检队伍中，总觉得旁边队伍移动得更快——这种错觉总是存在。不过您的感觉或许没错，因为机场安检确实存在不平等现象。

I'm Ayesha Roscoe, and you're listening to the Sunday Story, where we go beyond the news of the day to bring you one big story. It's Labor Day weekend, and if you're lucky, you might be hanging out at the beach and napping or cooking out, you know, but maybe you aren't so lucky. Maybe Maybe like so many on this peak travel weekend, you're standing in a security line at the airport, and you're feeling like some other line is moving faster than yours. It always feels like that. But you might be right because all is not equal in airport security.

这个事实让我们思考：当私营企业在公共空间提供服务时会发生什么？于是我们邀请制片人金·纳德芬·彼得萨讲述某家公司如何涉足机场安检领域的故事。嗨，金。

That fact got us to thinking about what happens when private companies offer services in what we perceive as a public space. So we asked producer Kim Naderfain Petersa to tell us a story of how one company got a stake in airport security. Hi, Kim.

你好阿伊莎，很高兴来做客。

Hey, Ayesha. Nice to be here.

欢迎你的到来。

Glad to have you here.

今天我们要从机场安检线开始，先聊聊这位先生的故事。

So we are going to start today, at the airport security line with this guy.

我是大卫·齐珀，麻省理工学院移动计划项目高级研究员，主要研究交通系统如何影响我们的生活。

My name is David Zipper. I am a senior fellow at the MIT Mobility Initiative. I focus on ways in which our transportation systems affect our lives.

齐珀向我讲述的经历始于2022年12月中旬。当时他从华盛顿特区乘机出发，在TSA安检线排队约二十分钟后已略显烦躁，并注意到前方有家名为Clear公司的员工造成了轻微阻滞。

And Zipper, he shared this story with me. It starts in mid December twenty twenty two. He was flying out of Washington DC, and he had been standing in the TSA line for, like, twenty minutes, long enough to get a little annoyed and to notice that at the front of the line, these employees from this company Clear, they were causing a little bit of a holdup.

穿着Clear制服的工作人员会说'请稍候'，然后引导他们专属通道的乘客插队到前面。说实话这很令人恼火。

This person wearing a Clear shirt would say, please wait. And then they would usher somebody from the clear line ahead of them. So it was annoying, to be honest.

齐珀原以为自己走的是快速通道——他支付了小额政府费用，历经背景审查才获得TSA预检资格。然而现在竟还有人能在他前面插队。

And Zipper, he thought that he was in the fast fast lane. He had paid this small fee to the government, gone through the trouble of a background check, all to get into the TSA precheck line. And yet, here were these people who were still cutting in front of him.

就像三十年前老动画片里的场景，我头顶简直要冒出愤怒的乌云，整个人开始冒火。

If you think of, like, those old cartoons from thirty years ago, I had, like, like, angry clouds darkening over my head. It was just sort of, like, starting to fume.

而且，阿伊莎，我确信你在机场见过Clear公司的员工。

And, Ayesha, I'm I'm sure that you have seen Clear employees at the airport.

是的，我见过他们，但我一直没搞明白这到底是怎么运作的。

Yeah. I've I've seen them, but I never really understood how it all worked.

Clear本质上是一家生物识别技术公司，收费大约200美元。他们的顾客不用在TSA工作人员那里停下检查照片ID，而是通过一个舱体扫描面部、指纹或眼睛来验证身份。然后由Clear员工陪同他们直接到TSA队伍的最前面。当Zipper看到这一切时，他认为人们真正花钱买的其实是这个——他们想要的并不是生物识别技术本身。

So Clear is basically a biometrics technology company for about $200. Instead of stopping by a TSA employee who looks at their photo ID, their customers stop by this pod to scan their face or fingers or eyes to verify their identity. And then they get escorted to the front of the TSA line by a clear employee. And when Zipper sees all of this, it makes him think this is really what people are paying for. It's not that they want biometrics.

就是个插队特权罢了，仅此而已。

It's a line cutting privilege. That's all it's doing.

于是他开始酝酿一场小小的个人反抗。

So he starts ruminating about a little one man revolt.

我当时在想，我又不是Clear的客户，凭什么他们的员工能在这里对我发号施令？

I was thinking, I am not a customer of Clear, so why are their employees telling me what to do here?

几分钟后，他正好排到最前面，果然有个Clear员工要求他等待。

And a few minutes later, he's right at the front, and sure enough, this Clear employee asks him to wait.

然后引导了一对情侣插到我前面。我就说：不行，这不合规矩。我和你们没有任何关系，你们没资格指挥我。

And ushers to, like, a a couple in front of me. And I say, no. Actually, that's that's not okay. They they I I I don't have a relationship with you, and you can't tell me what to do. Oh.

有趣的是Clear员工对此习以为常，只说'嘿，我只是在履行职责'。我觉得TSA工作人员也见怪不怪了，就说'你得等会儿'。所以我只能忍气吞声地等着，但心里火冒三丈。

What was interesting was the CLEAR employee was used to this and said, hey. I'm just doing my job. And as I and I think the TSA person was also kinda used to this and was just like, you gotta wait a minute. So I just sort of swallowed it, and I waited. And I'm fuming.

没错，我完全理解。排队时看到别人插队确实会让人火大。

No. I mean, I totally get that. I mean, it sucks when you're waiting in a line and you see other people jumping you, that that's gonna make you heated.

是的。我想说的是，我们在这里讨论的是那些根深蒂固的小学道德观念。它们深深刻在我们的骨子里。然后这位刚插队到他前面的Clear客户转过身来，对Zipper说。

Yeah. I mean, I think that we're we're talking about here are these, deep elementary school morals. They are baked very, very, very deep inside of us. And then this Clear customer who had just cut in front of him, she turns around, and she says to Zipper.

我真的很抱歉。我加入Clear只是因为我讨厌排队等待。我当时心想，我必须把这件事写出来。我受够了。

I'm really sorry. I only joined Clear because I freaking hate waiting in those lines. And I thought to myself, I need to just write about this. I've had it.

几天后，他在Slate杂志上发表了一篇文章，题为《对Clear感到恼火，这家让客户快速通过机场的公司，请排队》。这篇文章迅速走红。

A few days later, he publishes this article for Slate Magazine called Annoyed with Clear, the company that fast tracks its customers through airports, get in line. And the article, it just takes off.

这篇文章在网上引发了大量讨论，吸引了读者的广泛关注，因为它似乎触及了许多人内心深处感受到但未曾言明的东西。

Sparked a ton of conversation online was got a ton of attention from readers, because it seems to have, like, tapped into something that a lot of people were feeling viscerally but hadn't seen articulated.

这正是人们所感受到的。这就是我们今天要探讨的内容。因为在某种程度上，这家公司嵌入美国机场安检系统，它是

And that's something that people were feeling. That's what we're gonna explore today. Because in a way, this company embedded into America's airport security, it's

这个

this

非常具象的物理表现，反映了当下全国各地正在发生的事情。随着私营企业逐渐渗透到越来越多的公共服务领域。

very literal physical representation of something that's actually happening across the country right now. As private companies are inching their way into more and more public services.

今天的《周日故事》将探讨私有化的诱人承诺，以及当公共利益与私人利益试图共存时实际发生的情况。广告后继续。

Today on the Sunday story, a look at the tempting promises of privatization and what actually happens when public and private interests try to coexist. That's after the break.

本信息由Wise提供，这是一款全球资金管理应用。使用Wise管理资金时，您总能获得中间市场汇率，无隐藏费用。加入数百万客户行列，访问wise.com。适用条款与条件。

This message comes from Wise, the app for using money around the globe. When you manage your money with Wise, you'll always get the mid market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Join millions of customers and visit wise.com. Ts and Cs apply.

在Radiolab，我们最热衷的就是钻研科学、神经科学、化学等领域的知识。

At Radiolab, we love nothing more than nerding out about science, neuroscience, chemistry.

但我们也喜欢涉足其他类型的故事。关于警务或政治的故事。乡村音乐。冰球。昆虫的性行为。

But but we do also like to get into other kinds of stories. Stories about policing or Politics. Country music. Hockey. Sex of bugs.

无论我们探讨的是科学还是非科学领域，我们都秉持严谨的好奇心为你寻找答案。

Regardless of whether we're looking at science or not science, we bring a rigorous curiosity to get you the answers.

并希望能让你以全新视角看世界。

And hopefully, make you see the world anew.

Radio Lab，探索认知边界的冒险之旅。

Radio Lab, adventures on the edge of what we think we know.

在任意播客平台均可收听。

Wherever you get your podcasts.

我是埃里克·格拉斯。在《美国生活》节目中，我们钟爱出人意料的故事。比如，想象你发现一个新爱好后意识到

This is Eric Glass. On This American Life, we like stories that surprise you. For instance, imagine finding a new hobby and realizing

要真正按照大师们的方式实践这个爱好，你很可能需要游走法律边缘获取所需材料。甚至可能触犯法律。没错。违反国际法那种。

To do this hobby right according to the ways of the masters, there's a pretty good chance that you're gonna have to bend the law to get the materials that you need. If not break it. Yeah. To break international laws.

你的人生故事，那些精彩绝伦的篇章，尽在《美国生活》。

Your life stories, really good ones, this American life.

《大白鲨》被誉为完美电影、第一部票房大片、彻底改变我们观影方式的影片——但五十年后的今天它还能告诉我们什么？我们将以全新视角审视这部影片，那些呆滞的眼神，玩偶般漆黑的眼珠，尽在《流行文化欢乐时光》。通过NPR应用或任意播客平台收听。

Jaws has been called the perfect movie, the first blockbuster, the film that changed, why we go to the movies, but what does it still have to say fifty years later? We're bringing fresh eyes to the film, lifeless eyes, black eyes like a doll's eyes on pop culture happy hour. Listen on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.

您正在收听《周日故事》，今天我们要讨论私有化话题。与我对话的是周日故事制作人金·纳德芬·彼得森。金，在特朗普政府时期，企业比政府更有能力的观念似乎根深蒂固。没错，这是保守派的论调，但他们确实在努力付诸实践。比如道奇公司及其试图缩减联邦政府规模的举措。

You're listening to the Sunday story, and today we're talking privatization. I'm joined by Sunday story producer Kim Naderfain Peterson. So, Kim, under this Trump administration, the idea that businesses are more capable than government seems to run really deep. Yes, this is a conservative talking point, but they're really trying to put it into practice. You know, I'm thinking about Doge and and its attempts to shrink the federal government.

而且一些官员提出了将某种形式的私有化引入公共实体的想法，包括美国邮政服务。

And and some officials have floated this idea of bringing some form of privatization to public entities, including the US Postal Service.

是的，没错。但整个私有化的趋势，我是说，你提到的这个，并不是新想法。它在七十年代真正兴起。从那时起，我们看到越来越多的公共服务，从供水系统到电力设施、监狱和学校，都落入了私人手中。

Yes. That's right. But this whole trend towards privatizing, I mean, you mentioned it, it's not a new idea. It really took hold in the nineteen seventies. And since then, we've seen more and more public services from water systems to electric utilities, prisons, and schools fall into private hands.

而特朗普政府，它真的只是在加速这一进程。

And the Trump administration, it's really just hitting the accelerator.

那么，跟我讲讲CLEAR吧。它是怎么最终进入原本由政府运营的安全流程的？

So, tell me about CLEAR. Like, how did it end up in what is otherwise a government run security process?

这一切始于9/11之后，联邦政府开始全面收紧机场安全系统。政府创建了一个全新的机构，运输安全管理局（TSA），并引入了这个所有旅客现在都必须经历的标准安全流程。但当然，真正实施这样的系统非常困难。有一段时间，情况一片混乱。事情就这样继续着。

So it all starts in this moment after 09/11 the federal government started to tighten basically the entire airport security system. The government created a whole new agency, the Transportation Security Administration, and introduced this standard security process that all travelers now had to go through. But, of course, actually pulling off a system like that is really hard. And for a while, it was chaos. Lent went along.

旅客们感到不满。于是在2004年2月，TSA邀请私营公司在一系列全国性试点中测试新的安全方法。它试图回答的问题是，能否通过事先的背景调查等方式识别低风险旅客，并让这些人更快地通过安检，从而整体上提高安全性。TSA将其作为注册旅客计划推出。2005年2月，CLEAR成立并成为该计划中最大的公司。

Travelers were annoyed. So in 02/2004, the TSA invited private companies to test out a new approach to security in a series of nationwide pilots. The question that it was trying to understand was, could it improve security overall by identifying low risk flyers ahead of time through things like background checks and then move those people through security more quickly. The TSA launched it as the registered traveler program. And in 02/2005, Clear launched and became the biggest company in the program.

不久之后，公司的情况开始稳步发展。他们获得了客户，筹集了资金，并进入了全国各地的机场。

Soon, things for the company were kind of chugging along. They were getting customers, raising money, and were in airports around the country.

所以，听起来这可能是公私合作的理想版本，因为CLEAR应该是在创新，应该帮助更多人更高效地通过安检，对吧？

So, I mean, it sounds like this could be like an ideal version of a public private partnership because CLEAR is supposed to be innovating and is supposed to be helping more people, like, move efficiently through security. Right?

是的，没错。我把CLEAR的故事分享给了《一切私有化》的作者唐纳德·科恩。他告诉我

Yeah. That's right. I shared the story of CLEAR with Donald Cohen, the author of The Privatization of Everything. And he told me

雇佣一家私营公司来帮忙解决问题是完全没问题的。

It's totally fine to hire a private company to help figure something out.

因此在新冠疫情期间、911事件等存在巨大需求的时刻，企业在政府监管下快速开发新技术是有益的。

So during COVID, nine eleven, these moments where there are huge needs, companies can be useful to develop new technologies quickly, especially under government oversight.

这与让它们成为系统的永久组成部分是不同的。

That's different from letting them be permanent parts of the system.

所以没错，当时已有人对这些感到不满，但在急需新方法的特殊时期，这或许只是不得不付出的微小代价。

So, sure, at this time, some people were already getting annoyed at all of this, but maybe that was a small price to pay for some new approaches in this moment where they're desperately needed.

你的意思是，这就像一种权衡取舍。

So, I mean, what you're you're saying is like, it was a trade off.

对。

Right.

是的。但既然我们在这里讨论，事情可能还没结束。

Yes. But, I mean, since we talking here, it's probably not the end of the story.

没错。故事远不止于此。接下来事态急转直下——2008年2月，Clear公司一名员工的笔记本电脑在旧金山国际机场遗失，里面存有约33,000名用户未加密的个人信息。

Yeah. No. There's a lot more to the story. And next, things take kind of a wild turn. In 02/2008, the laptop of a Clear employee goes missing at San Francisco International Airport, and it has on it the unencrypted personal information of about 33,000 CLEAR users.

对掌握大量个人数据的生物识别公司来说，这简直是噩梦。随后媒体掀起轩然大波。几乎同时，政府终止了可信旅客计划，取消了Clear对乘客进行背景调查的权限。至此，Clear的核心价值从识别低风险旅客，彻底转向了用生物识别技术快速通关。这些事件共同导致投资者信任崩塌。

This is kind of a nightmare situation for a biometric company responsible for a lot of personal data. And what follows is really a media firestorm. Now around the same time, the government ends the trusted traveler program and removes Clear's ability to do background checks on flyers. So at this point, the value that Clear can offer, it really shifts away from identifying low risk flyers and more towards skip to the front of the line with biometrics. All of this works together to contribute to a loss of trust from investors.

2009年2月，公司宣告破产，机场的Clear专用通道随之消失。

And in 02/2009, the company goes bankrupt. Clear lanes disappear from airports.

但显然如你所说，它现在又回来了——我前几天还在机场看到Clear的柜台。他们是如何东山再起的？

But, obviously, it is as you're saying, it's back because, you know, I I saw clear booths at the airport just the other day. So so how did they make this comeback?

于是在2010年2月，两位华尔街投资者从破产中收购了这家公司，并以截然不同的愿景重新启动。这一次，生物识别技术成为其核心。新版的CLEAR希望将生物识别技术应用于各种场景。想象一下：去诊所时扫描手指就能调出健康记录，或者在棒球比赛时用APP刷脸买啤酒——因为他们知道你已满21岁。

So in 02/2010, two Wall Street investors buy the company out of bankruptcy and relaunch it with a very different vision. This time with biometrics at its heart. This new version of CLEAR, it wants to use biometric technology for all kinds of things. So just imagine, go to the doctor's office, scan your finger, and get your health records pulled up. Or maybe you go to a baseball game, and then you scan your face on an app and get a beer because they know you're 21.

天啊。

Oh my goodness.

核心理念是希望每天出现在你生活中12次，而不仅限于机场，真正融入你的日常。我向航空与CLEAR执行副总裁凯尔·麦克劳林求证过，想通过他的视角理解CLEAR2.0的承诺。

The whole idea is, like, we wanna show up 12 times in your day, not just at the airport, but, like, really be embedded in your life. I asked Kyle McLaughlin about this. He's the executive vice president of Aviation and Clear, and I wanted to understand through his eyes the promise of Clear two point o.

在网络安全、欺诈和身份盗窃日益猖獗的世界里，我们的长期愿景是将机场场景的解决方案扩展到日常高频使用场景，通过隐私至上的自愿授权方式验证'你是你'，且仅共享必要身份要素来解锁更流畅的体验。

In a world where cybersecurity and fraud and, you know, identity theft are becoming more and more rampant, our vision has long been to be able to take what we do in the airports and scale that to something that you're using multiple times a day, to be able to confirm that you are you in a privacy centric way that's always opt in. And in a world where you're only sharing the core elements of your identity that you absolutely need to to unlock a more frictionless experience.

这个'流畅体验'确实有点企业术语的味道，但我明白——你们追求极速。

Well, you know, I mean, the the frictionless experience, that's definitely, you know, some some corporate speak, but I get it. Like, you wanna move very fast.

没错。这是公司的宣传点。与麦克劳林通话后，我持续联系CLEAR的公关团队，想就'CLEAR只是高级插队服务'的质疑听取回应。他们表示这远未涵盖全部价值——实质是创造更高效的通道。

Yes. That is the company's pitch. So after after my call with McLaughlin, I I stayed in touch with the communications people at Clear because I wanted to run his critique by them, that Clear is actually just a fancy line cutting service. And they told me that really doesn't capture the full picture of what Clear offers. As they see it, Clear creates just like a faster moving line.

他们主张生物识别验证比人工查ID更快，且机器可多通道并行运作，就像超市自助结账通道的加速版。

Their biometric verification is faster, they argue, than a person manually checking an ID. And because we're dealing with machines here, they can have lots of pods going at the same time. So it's like speeding through the self checkout lane at the grocery store.

但显然人们总会担忧：这存在安全隐患吗？与身体绑定的数据安全吗？

But obviously, you know, the concern with all of this is always, are there security issues? Right? Is your data, which is now linked to your body, is it safe?

确实。公众对私营公司掌握此类敏感数据有顾虑。基因公司23andMe近期破产时，大量用户就担忧其个人数据流向。

Yeah. People have expressed concerns about this. A private company having all of this personal data. The DNA company twenty three and Me recently went bankrupt. And in that process, a lot of people were worried about what would happen to their personal data.

这也是人们对CLEAR的疑问。副总裁麦克劳林强调公司有严格的数据保护政策，绝不会出售或出租客户数据。

That's also a question that people have about CLEAR. Kyle McLaughlin, the VP of CLEAR, he said that the company has strict policies to keep people's data safe and that it never sells or rents customer data to anybody.

你对自己的数据拥有掌控权。你可以决定存储什么、分享什么，并最终拥有在任何时候修改或删除这些数据的能力。

You are in control of your data. You are in control of, you know, what is stored, what is shared, and ultimately have the ability to modify or delete that, you know, at any point in time.

他还表示公司财务状况良好。

And he says the company is financially healthy.

所以我认为我们破产的可能性相对较小。

So I think the the chances of us going bankrupt are are relatively slim.

好的。那我们谈谈安全问题。公司重新推出后在这方面的记录如何？

Okay. So then let's talk about security. Like, what's been the track record there since the company relaunched?

Clear曾发生过另外两起广受关注的安全事件。2022年，有人以虚假身份通过Clear登机，后来被发现行李中装有弹药。据彭博社报道，这种情况之所以发生，是因为Clear过去有个流程：当用户首次注册时，如果外貌与身份证件存在差异，系统会标记出来，但员工可以手动覆盖这个标记，直接确认身份无误。

So Clear has had two other security incidents that were pretty widely covered. In 2022, someone made it through Clear who was flying under a false identity and later turned out to have ammunition in his luggage. According to reporting from Bloomberg, this was able to happen because Clear used to have this process that when users first registered with the company, if there was some mismatch between somebody's appearance and their ID, that then the computer would flag it. And an employee could override that flag. Basically say, like, it's fine.

这种机制为人为失误留下了漏洞。到了2023年，又有人从垃圾桶里捡到登机牌，竟成功通过了Clear的安检。报道显示，当时Clear员工在未核实身份的情况下，直接将此人护送到了TSA柜台。

This person is who they say they are, which introduced some vulnerability for human error. And then in 2023, somebody grabbed a boarding pass out of the trash and was able to make it through CLEAR's screening. In this case, reporting shows that a CLEAR employee escorted them to the TSA desk without verifying their identity at all.

呃，这听起来确实很糟糕。

Well, I I mean, that sounds pretty bad.

是的，这引发了很多疑问。我向凯尔·麦克劳克林询问此事时，他解释说这些事件是人为失误导致的，公司已对涉事人员进行了个别处理，并对全国员工进行了重新培训。

Yeah. It raises a lot of questions. So I asked Kyle McLaughlin about this. He told me that these incidents were the results of human errors, and so they addressed those people individually and then retrained their entire staff nationally.

最重要的是，我们全面改革了所有流程，并与TSA合作开发了全新的技术产品。这充分体现了公私合作的优势——我们足够灵活，能在一年内完成整个平台的升级以解决这些问题。

And most importantly, we overhauled all of our processes and developed a brand new technology product in partnership with TSA. And I think that really highlights the benefit of public private partnership. We were nimble enough that we were able to pivot and upgrade our entire platform to address these concerns inside of a year.

但这些安全事件产生了连锁反应。2023年TSA出台新规，要求部分Clear客户在抵达TSA安检线前端时，必须向工作人员出示身份证件。

But these security incidents, they had a ripple effect. In 2023, the TSA introduced new rules and said that when some Clear customers get to the front of the TSA line, they will now have to show their ID to the TSA agents.

这难道不是完全违背了透明安检的初衷吗？

Doesn't that kinda defeat the whole purpose of of the clear screening?

确实如此。这家公司的核心承诺本是通过生物识别验证而非人工查证来加速安检流程。但需要说明的是，TSA这项规定仅适用于部分使用CLEAR的乘客，并非所有人。所以仍有人可以快速通关。

I mean, yeah. Like, the company's whole promise is that they are going to speed you through security by doing biometric identity verification instead of somebody looking at your ID. But I will say this TSA requirement, it only applies to a certain percent of people who are going through CLEAR, not everybody. So some people could still sail through.

既然CLEAR似乎给TSA和政府的安全流程增添了这么多麻烦和复杂性，机场为何还要保留它？

So why would airports want to keep CLEAR if it does seem to add all of this frustration and and complication to the security process for TSA, the government,

对普通乘客也是？嗯，因为能从中获利。机场会从CLEAR的收入中抽成。为深入了解细节，我采访了布罗迪·福特。他是彭博社记者，去年曾对CLEAR进行过调查。

and and for regular flyers? Well, they make money off of it. Airports take a cut of the revenue that Clear earns. To learn more about the details of this, I talked to Brody Ford. He's a journalist at Bloomberg, and he did an investigation into Clear last year.

福特发现，例如洛杉矶国际机场能获得CLEAR在当地收入的12.5%。2023年这笔收入约为500万美元。

Ford found that LAX, for example, makes about 12.5% of what Clear earns at LAX. So in 2023, that was about $5,000,000.

这可是一大笔钱。

That's a lot of money.

没错。这些机场和公司仅靠解决机场不便的一小部分就赚得盆满钵满。该公司目前估值超40亿美元，比捷蓝航空等航司还高。但若回顾CLEAR重启时的雄心——要成为日常生活中的大型生物识别平台——福特的报道显示，其与医疗机构、体育场馆等合作并未成为重要收入来源。目前它仍是家专注机场安检线的企业。

Yeah. These airports and the company, they're making a lot servicing just this tiny little slice of airport inconvenience. The company is now worth more than $4,000,000,000, which is bigger than some airlines like JetBlue. But if you remember Claire's ambitions for its relaunch that it was going to become this big biometrics platform that you would interact with throughout your day, Ford's reporting showed that its other partnerships like doctor's offices and stadiums, they are not significant sources of revenue for the company. So at this point, it really is this company focused on the airport security line.

那么金，这一切意味着什么？

So, Kim, where does all of this leave us?

我认为与CLEAR未来最相关的是：近年来政府TSA水平大幅提升。如今的TSA预检简直像早期CLEAR——背景审查、快速安检、甚至生物识别验证，但每五年仅需约80美元。问题在于：我们是否还需要CLEAR这样的公司来加速安检？

So one thing that I think is really relevant to the future of CLEAR is that in the last few years, the government TSA has really upped its game. These days, TSA PreCheck, I have to say it looks a lot like early CLEAR. Background checks, expedited screening, even biometric verification. But it only costs about $80 every five years. So one question is, do we still need a company like Clear to speed people through airport security?

如今既有政府快速通道又有私营快速通道，许多机场现设三条安检线。部分CLEAR客户抱怨其通道反而不是最快的。福特报道显示某些机场CLEAR使用率已下降。但在新特朗普政府领导下，该公司可能迎来转机。五月政府提议削减TSA staff2.47亿美元预算，这可能意味着TSA需要私营合作伙伴协助。

Now, with the expedited government line and the expedited private line, these days, lots of airports have three security lines. And some clear customers have been complaining that clear lines aren't the fastest. At some airports, Ford's reporting shows that the usage of clear has gone down. But under the new Trump administration, things could really turn around for the company. In May, it proposed a budget cut of $247,000,000 to TSA staff, which could mean that the TSA will need a hand from a private partner.

这样的话，Clear可能正好处于一个非常有利的位置。

So so in that case, Clear might be kind of perfectly positioned.

没错。这对公司来说都是好兆头。Clear刚刚还宣布将在多个机场实施电子门禁，这意味着部分Clear客户现在可以直接走到闸门前，扫描面部和登机牌，然后直接进入行李安检区域。不再需要在TSA工作人员处停留，这似乎也表明在特朗普政府下，TSA可能对Clear更友好。当然，这项创新目前仅适用于Clear客户。

Yeah. This could all bode really well for the company. Clear also just made a big announcement that it's implementing e gates at several airports, which means that instead of stopping at their usual pod, some Clear customers can now walk right up to this gate, scan their face and their boarding pass, and then sail right into the zone where travelers in their bags get physically scanned. No more stopping by a TSA agent, which looks like another sign that under the Trump administration, the TSA might be friendlier towards But, of course, this innovation, it's just for CLEAR customers.

所以这里仍然存在一个根本问题：如果你有钱，就可以快速通过这种政府强制性的安检程序。

So there's still this underlying issue of if you have the money, you can speed through this, like, mandated government security process.

是的，正是如此。我认为这种不平等确实是这个问题的核心。这不是私有化失败的可怕例子。人们保持了安全，这才是关键所在。

Yeah. Exactly. I mean, I do think that that inequity is really what's at the heart of this story. It's not some terrible example of privatization gone wrong. People have stayed safe, and that is really what's at stake here.

TSA在监管方面显然做得不错。但Clear给人们带来的那种感觉，就像Zipper被插队时的体验，他的文章似乎触动了某根神经。我想理解这种感觉背后的含义，于是联系了迈克尔·桑德尔。他在这个领域堪称思想巨擘。

The TSA has clearly done a good job of regulating. But still there's this this feeling that Clear evokes for people, that Zipper experienced when he got cut in line, that nerve that his article seemed to touch. And I wanted to understand what that feeling was getting at. So I reached out to Michael Sandel. He is kind of a big brain in this space.

他是哈佛大学政治哲学教授，也是《市场的道德局限》一书的作者。当我请他帮我理解这根神经可能是什么时，他戴上了哲学家的思考帽。

He's a professor of political philosophy at Harvard and the author of the moral limits of markets. And when I asked him to help me understand what that nerve might be, he put on his philosopher hat.

让我通过提出一个更宏观的问题来探讨这个现象。问题是：什么时候应该允许付费插队？我认为对大多数人来说，答案取决于人们排队的目的。想想医院的急诊室，它们通常按分诊原则运作。

Well, let me address it by posing the the larger question I think that this raises. The question is, when should you be able to pay to jump the queue? The answer to that question, I think for most of us, depends what people are lining up for. Think of an emergency room in a hospital. They generally operate by triage.

如果候诊室里有个喉咙痛的人和另一个中枪伤的人，即使喉咙痛的人愿意额外付费，也不能插队到枪伤患者前面。而在机场安检这个案例中，我们讨论的是一种公共产品。我认为这正是我们本能抗拒私营公司分配安检通道使用权的原因。

If there's a person there with a sore throat and there's a person there with bullet wounds, Even if the person with the sore throat is willing to pay extra, they don't get to cut in line ahead of the person with bullet wounds. And in the case of airport security, we're talking about a public good. And that's, I think, fundamentally why we bridle at the idea that a private company is allocating access to the security line.

在他看来，这种排队本应是一种公共体验，而非可购买的商品。但当人们付费插队时，他说某种重要的东西发生了转变——这些人从公民变成了顾客。

As he sees it, this kind of queue is meant to be a public experience, not to be bought. But when people do pay to jump it, he says something kind of big shifts. Instead of citizens, they become customers.

顾客与公民的区别在于，顾客可以随心所欲地花钱购买商品或更快服务。而作为公民，意味着要为公共利益接受某些不便，承认在某些生活领域我们地位平等、休戚与共。

And what separates a customer from a citizen is that the customer can spend however much they want to buy the good or to buy faster service. Whereas to be a citizen is to accept certain inconveniences for the sake of the public good. It's to accept that for certain aspects of life, we stand together. We have equal status.

桑德尔还补充说，一旦金钱介入，那种平等地位就不复存在了。这意味着在越来越多的地方，人与人之间、富人与穷人之间的距离正在扩大。我认为这是我们都能感受到的现象。

And Sandell added that when money enters the picture, that equal status, it's it's no longer there, which means that the distance between people, between the haves and the have nots, in more and more places, it grows. And I think that's the kind of thing that we all feel.

金，非常感谢你为我们提供所有这些信息，并带我们踏上这段旅程。

Kim, you know, thank you so much for for giving us all of this information and taking us on this journey.

是啊，一段无需飞行的旅程。

Yeah, a journey without having to fly.

而且，你知道，还向我们讲述了这些私营公司和公共服务机构的情况。

And, you know, just telling us about these private companies and public services.

是的。谢谢你邀请我，阿耶莎。

Yeah. Thank you, Ayesha, for having me.

本期节目由金·纳德法内·彼得萨制作，金妮·施密特编辑。事实核查由格蕾塔·皮廷格负责。音效设计咨询由布伦丹·贝克提供。母带处理由罗伯特·罗德里格斯完成。周日故事团队成员包括安德鲁·曼波、贾斯汀·严，以及我们的高级监制莉安娜·西姆斯特罗姆。

This episode was produced by Kim Naderfane Petersa and edited by Ginny Schmidt. Fact checking by Greta Pittinger. Sound design consulting by Brendan Baker. Mastering by Robert Rodriguez. The Sunday story team includes Andrew Mambo, Justine Yan, and our senior supervising producer, Liana Simstrom.

艾琳·野口是我们的执行制片人。我是阿耶莎·罗斯科。《Up First》明天将带着开启你一周所需的全部新闻回归。在那之前，祝你们周末愉快。

Irene Noguchi is our executive producer. I'm Ayesha Roscoe. Up First is back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

好处是，你可以无广告收听超过25个NPR播客。坏处是，你在播客播放器上快进的机会变少了。好处是，你能支持自己关心的事业。坏处是，你喜欢挑战，觉得这样太容易了。所以何不加入我们，来到NPR Plus的积极面呢？

On the plus side, you get sponsor free listening to over 25 NPR podcasts. On the minus side, you get fewer chances to tap fast forward on your podcast player. On the plus side, you get to support something you care about. On the minus side, you like challenges and think this makes it too easy. So why don't you join us on the plus side of things with NPR Plus?

了解更多并注册请访问+.npr..org。

Learn more and sign up at +.npr..org.

消息来源与方法，情报界的皇冠明珠。这是‘我们如何知道什么是真实的’的简写。谁告诉我们的？如果你知道这些答案，你就是内部人士，而NPR想带你进入其中。从五角大楼到国务院再到间谍机构，聆听以理解真正发生的事情及其对你的意义。

Sources and methods, the crown jewels of the intelligence community. Shorthand for how do we know what's real? Who told us? If you have those answers, you're on the inside, and NPR wants to bring you there. From the Pentagon to the State Department to spy agencies, listen to understand what's really happening and what it means for you.

《消息来源与方法》，NPR全新推出的国家安全播客。军事指挥官、情报官员、外交实权人物，他们掌握着关于世界走向的你可能不知道的信息，我们将揭开他们思考的幕后故事——就在NPR的国家安全新播客《消息来源与方法》中。我们的团队将帮助您理解美国在全球角色中的转变。敬请收听NPR的《消息来源与方法》。

Sources and Methods, the new national security podcast from NPR. Military commanders, intelligence officials, diplomatic power players, they know things you may not about where the world is headed, and we will pull back the curtain on what they're thinking on sources and methods, NPR's new national security podcast. Our team will help you understand America's shifting role in the world. Listen to sources and methods from NPR.