This new app will tell you if you’re sick, but it may also cost you your privacy

Clear, a biometrics company headquartered in New York, is rolling out a new phone app designed to tell users if they’re sick or well, requiring facial recognition and a health questionnaire -- and already some are voicing concerns about privacy.

Clear is marketing “Health Pass” as a key tool for safely reopening the economy even as coronavirus lingers and spreads, by giving employers the power to screen workers before they come into the workplace. The company suggests it could have broader uses as well.

“Health Pass by CLEAR gives employees and consumers the confidence and peace of mind to get back to work, shop at their favorite store, step into a restaurant and attend a ball game,” the company said.

To use Health Pass, users must first download the free Clear phone app and create a digital ID, which requires biometric data for verification, according to the company.

“It’s about attaching your identity to your COVID-related health insights, for employers, for employees, for customers. Everybody wants to know that each other’s safe,” Clear CEO Caryn Seidman Becker told CNBC in May.

To enter a business that has Clear’s system in place, users will take a selfie to verify their identity, then answer a health quiz, according to the website.

Following that, they will step up to a Clear pod, basically a small kiosk, to submit the results of their test, Axios reported. Then it’s up to the business whether to let that individual inside, or send them on their way.

Clear pods might not be a common sight on the street, at least not yet, but they’re already in dozens of major US airports. Paying members can pop by a kiosk for a quick iris and thumbprint scan, allowing them to move more quickly through security, according to Axios. That’s been Clear’s main business model up to this point.

“CLEAR’s trusted biometric identity platform was born out of 9/11 to help millions of travelers feel safe when flying,” Maria Comella, the head of public affairs at Clear, told the outlet. “Now, CLEAR’s touchless technology is able to connect identity to health insights to help people feel confident walking back into the office.”

U.S. Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) have expressed privacy concerns to Clear, questioning CEO Seidman Becker about the company’s practices, asking what guarantees it can give that customer data won’t be misused, sold, or even stolen.

“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,” the letter to Seidman Becker said, adding that while there may be benefits to it, “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,” the letter continued.