by Shane Trejo, Big League Politics:

Big Brother marches forward.

The COVID-19 pandemic, and the surrounding mass hysteria pushed by the media, is being used as an excuse to push technology that could destroy privacy rights forever.

One of these Orwellian innovations is an invasive health ID card that will store an individual’s biometric information, and allow it to be scanned and shared. If an individual’s health ID data was considered up to par, they would be allowed to participate in society. If they could not meet state-mandated health standards, they would be shunned and quarantined as a result.

The tech firm CLEAR has invented the Health Pass to link biometric information with a federal CDC database. CNBC believes that these sort of devices could become a multibillion-dollar industry in the age of pandemics and biological warfare.

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“Just like screening was forever changed post-9/11, in a post-Covid environment you’re going to see screening and public safety significantly shift,” CLEAR chairman and CEO Caryn Seidman-Becker said during an appearance on CNBC. “But this time it’s beyond airports — it’s sports stadiums, it’s retail, it’s office buildings, it’s restaurants.”

CLEAR technology has already been used by the TSA, sports stadiums, and other government bureaucracies. The firm believes that these relationships will make it easier for their Health Pass to become ubiquitous throughout society.

“Health Pass has launched, and we are in conversations with different partners across industries, including with restaurateur Danny Meyer, the New York Mets, RXR and the Las Vegas’ Covid-19 recovery task force,” said Maria Comella, CLEAR’s head of public affairs.

CLEAR’s intention with Health Pass is to link biometric data, such as an eye scan or a fingerprint, to information determining potential risk for the spread of coronavirus. Users would theoretically be forced to submit biometric information into a database to be able to go to work and function in society.

“People are accustomed to moving through an airport security check, and that’s the sentiment that many hospitality companies are saying, is that health screening would need to be the sort of thing that people get used to,” said Dorothy Creamer, who works as senior research analyst for hospitality and travel digital transformation strategies with IDC.

Lawmakers are already pushing back against CLEAR and other firms marketing this invasive technology over concerns regarding privacy rights and potential profiling.

“While we appreciate CLEAR’s contribution to the discussion of safely reopening our nation’s economy, the use of facial recognition technology poses real privacy concerns,” Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Cory Booker (D-NJ) wrote in a letter to Seidman-Becker back in May.

“Though there are some potential benefits and expediencies, this technology can also be utilized widely and passively in such a way that eludes consumers’ awareness, permission, or the ability to opt out. If over or misused, facial recognition technology risks a state of undetectable, constant government surveillance that can track one’s movements and associations with organizations such as schools and places of worship,” they added in their letter.

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