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Home Court filings Brooks v. Thomson Reuters Corporation Declaration Kevin Appold — Brooks v. Thomson Reuters Corporation (Dkt. 150-3, N.D. Cal. No. 3:21-cv-01418)

Court filing

Declaration Kevin Appold — Brooks v. Thomson Reuters Corporation (Dkt. 150-3, N.D. Cal. No. 3:21-cv-01418)

Filed January 26, 2023 in Brooks v. Thomson Reuters Corporation; one of 127 filings from this case.

Record facts

CourtU.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Filed2023-01-26

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California · No. 3:21-cv-01418-EMC · Doc. 150-3 · 2023-01-26 · Docket on CourtListener

Full text

1 Susan D. Fahringer, Bar No. 21567 
SF ahringer@perkinscoie.com 
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Nicola C. Menaldo, pro hac vice 
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NMenaldo@perkinscoie.com 
Erin K. Earl, pro hac vice 
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EEarl@perkinscoie.com 
Anna M. Thompson, pro hac vice 
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AnnaThompson@perkinscoie.com 
PERKINS COIE LLP 
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1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4900 
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Seattle, WA 98101-3099 
Telephone: 206.359.8000 
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Facsimile: 206.359.9000 
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Attorneys for Defendant 
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Thomson Reuters Corporation 
Gabriella Gallego, Bar No. 324226 
GGallego@perkinscoie.com 
PERKINS COIE LLP 
3150 Porter Drive 
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1212 
Telephone: 650.838.4300 
Facsimile: 650.838.4350 
Hayden M. Schottlaender, 
pro hac vice 
HSchottlaender@perkinscoie.com 
PERKINS COIE LLP 
500 N. Akard Street, Suite 3300 
Dallas, TX 75201-3347 
Telephone: 214.965.7700 
Facsimile: 214.965.7799 
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UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 
SAN FRANCISCO DIVISION 
CAT BROOKS and RASHEED 
SHABAZZ, individually and on behalf of 
all others similarly situated, 
Plaintiffs, 
V. 
THOMSON REUTERS CORPORATION, 
Defendant. 
Case No. 3:21-cv-01418-EMC 
Case No. 3:21-cv-01418-EMC 
DECLARATION OF KEVIN APPOLD IN 
SUPPORT OF THOMSON REUTERS' 
ADMINISTRATIVE MOTION TO FILE 
UNDER SEAL CONFIDENTIAL 
INFORMATION 
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KEVIN APPOLD SEALING DECLARATION 
Case 3:21-cv-01418-EMC     Document 150-3     Filed 01/26/23     Page 1 of 6

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I, Kevin Appold, declare as follows: 
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1. 
I am Vice President, Product, US Public Records at West Publishing Corporation, 
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the wholly owned subsidiary of Thomson Reuters Corporation that owns and operates the 
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CLEAR platfo1m. For purposes of this declaration, I will refer to West and Thomson Reuters 
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Corporation collectively as "Thomson Reuters." I have been employed by Thomson Reuters for 
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more than 27 years. I manage a team responsible for continued development and operation of the 
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CLEAR platform, and I have led the Product Management team responsible for the integration 
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and ongoing design of CLEAR since Thomson Reuters acquired CLEAR in 2008. I submit this 
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declaration in support of Thomson Reuters' Administrative Motion to File Under Seal 
. 10 
Confidential Information. I make this declaration based upon personal knowledge and if called 
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upon to do so I could and would testify competently to the facts set fo1th herein. 
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2. 
Ce1tain info1mation about CLEAR customers is not publicly known and would 
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cause harm to Thomson Reuters if publicly disclosed. For example, this includes the identities of 
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most CLEAR customers; the names of the employees of CLEAR customers who use the platform 
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and the names of individuals who were the subject of searches performed by CLEAR customers; 
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the specific use case of a given customer; the number of CLEAR customers, both generally and as 
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between different categories of customers (e.g., the propo1tion of government versus non-
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government customers); and infonnation about potential CLEAR customer contracts-including 
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the value or percentage of contracts Thomson Reuters declined due to credentialing and 
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compliance procedures used to prevent misuse and ensure security of CLEAR. The public 
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disclosure of customer information like this would hann Thomson Reuters because CLEAR 
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competitors could then access the information and use it to, for example, learn about how 
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Thomson Reuters has positioned CLEAR in the marketplace and/or target CLEAR customers for 
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their own products. Public disclosure could also harm Thomson Reuters by damaging its 
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relationship with its customer(s), especially if the customer(s) expect information about them to 
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be kept confidential, and especially given the fact that the customer(s) are not the subject of this 
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litigation and may therefore object to being identified in court filings in this litigation. Finally, 
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Case No. 3:21-cv-01418-EMC 
-2-
KEVIN APPOLD SEALING DECLARATION 
Case 3:21-cv-01418-EMC     Document 150-3     Filed 01/26/23     Page 2 of 6

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certain information could be taken out of context to give a misleading or inaccurate picture of 
CLEAR and related business practices. 
3. 
Detailed info1mation regarding credentialing and compliance procedures in place 
to prevent misuse and ensure security of CLEAR, including the fonns and documentation used; 
the number and types of requests, investigations, and reviews handled by the Thomson Reuters 
credentialing and/or compliance teams; and how those procedures have changed over time, is not 
publicly known. The public disclosure of this information would harm Thomson Reuters, 
including because it could make credentialing and compliance procedures less effective, and/or 
because CLEAR competitors could leverage the detailed infonnation for their own competitive 
purposes. Additionally, certain info1mation could be taken out of context to give a misleading or 
inaccurate picture of CLEAR and related business practices. 
4. 
The records and reports accessible through CLEAR are not available to the general 
public, including CLEAR competitors, and are instead only available to the specific, credentialed 
and authorized CLEAR customer(s) who certified a permissible use to view this information. 
Public disclosure of these documents would harm Thomson Reuters by undermining the limits 
that it imposes on customer(s) use of CLEAR records and reports. It would also undermine 
Thomson Reuters' competitive position in the marketplace by making the records and repo11s 
accessible to CLEAR competitors. 
5. 
Detailed information related to the content and form of CLEAR reports, including 
information about the layout, categories of content, and design of reports generated through 
CLEAR, is not available to the general public, including CLEAR competitors, and is instead 
ordinarily only available to credentialed and authorized CLEAR customer(s) who ce11ified a 
pennissible use to access the record or rep011. Public disclosure of this information would hmm 
Thomson Reuters because CLEAR competitors could leverage the detailed information for their 
own competitive purposes. And the information could be taken out of context to give a 
misleading or inaccurate picture of CLEAR and related business practices. 
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Documents that compile information about CLEAR features, functionality, 
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content, and data sources, and which are for internal use or for limited distribution ( e.g., to 
Case No. 3:21-cv-01418-EMC 
KEVfN APPOLD SEALfNG DECLARATION 
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Case 3:21-cv-01418-EMC     Document 150-3     Filed 01/26/23     Page 3 of 6

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credentialed and authorized CLEAR customers) should not be publicly disclosed. Public 
disclosure of such documents would hann Thomson Reuters because CLEAR competitors could 
leverage the compilation of infonnation for their own competitive purposes. Additionally, 
especially given that many of these documents are often targeted to specific audiences or to 
describe specific use cases, the information could be taken out of context to give a misleading or 
inaccurate picture of CLEAR and related business practices. 
7. 
Thomson Reuters' internal training documents, which may describe Thomson 
Reuters' market strategy, business strategies related to customer communications, and the 
processes that Thomson Reuters puts in place to prevent misuse and ensure security of CLEAR, 
are not publicly available. Public disclosure of these documents would harm Thomson Reuters 
because CLEAR competitors could leverage the detailed collection of information for their own 
competitive purposes. It could also undennine the effectiveness of various strategies and 
processes. Additionally, especially given that these documents are often targeted to specific 
circumstances and/or audiences, the information could be taken out of context to give a 
misleading or inaccurate picture of CLEAR and related business practices. 
8. 
The public disclosure of financial infonnation related to the CLEAR platform 
(e.g., revenue, profits, and costs) that is not already public (e.g, in annual reports) would hmm 
Thomson Reuters because CLEAR competitors could leverage the detailed infonnation for their 
own competitive purposes. And the info1mation could be taken out of context to give a 
misleading or inaccurate picture of CLEAR and related business practices. 
9. 
Detailed information regarding the technical processes of CLEAR, such as the 
function and names of internal databases, is not publicly known. Public disclosure of this 
inf01mation would hmm Thomson Reuters, including because it could undennine Thomson 
Reuters' security practices, and because competitors may also be able to leverage technical 
information for their own competitive purposes. 
10. 
Public disclosure of the estimates provided by Plaintiffs' experts in this case 
regarding CLEAR finances and/or regarding the proportion of information accessible through 
CLEAR attributable to California and/or the portion of revenue, profits, costs, etc. that are 
Case No. 3:21-cv-01418-EMC 
KEVrN APPOLD SEALrNG DECLARATION 
-4-
Case 3:21-cv-01418-EMC     Document 150-3     Filed 01/26/23     Page 4 of 6

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purportedly attributable to California would harm Thomson Reuters. Some of these estimates may 
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reveal confidential information about CLEAR finances and the makeup of CLEAR data. And the 
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estimates are inaccurate, or at least grossly misleading, and could therefore result in a misleading 
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or inaccurate picture of CLEAR and related business practices. 
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11. 
The identities of third-party licensors of records and/or data accessible through 
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CLEAR, and the types ofrecords and/or data that each third-paiiy licensor provides, in most 
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cases are not publicly known. The public disclosure of this information would harm Thomson 
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Reuters because CLEAR competitors could then access the information and use it to, for 
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example, target CLEAR data licensors for their own products. 
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Case No. 3:21-cv-01418-EMC 
[ signature on following page] 
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KEVIN APPOLD SEALING DECLARATION 
Case 3:21-cv-01418-EMC     Document 150-3     Filed 01/26/23     Page 5 of 6

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I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. 
Executed on January 2Q_, 2023, in c,(Al.<c+u.. . MN . 
r 
Kevin Appold 
Case No. 3:21-cv-01418-EMC 
-6-
KEVIN APPOLD SEALING DECLARATION 
Case 3:21-cv-01418-EMC     Document 150-3     Filed 01/26/23     Page 6 of 6

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