Those airport scanners with their all-too revealing body images will soon be going away.
The Transportation Security Administration says the scanners that used a low-dose X-ray will be gone by June because the company that makes them can't fix the privacy issues. The other airport body scanners, which produce a generic outline instead of a naked image, are staying.
[...]
At first, both types of scanners showed travelers naked. The idea was that security workers could spot both metallic objects like guns as well as non-metallic items such as plastic explosives. The scanners also showed every other detail of the passenger's body, too.
[...]
Congress ordered that the scanners either produce a more generic image or be removed by June.
On Thursday Rapiscan, the maker of the X-ray, or backscatter, scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn't be able to meet the June deadline.
[...]
The agency's statement also said the remaining scanners will move travelers through more quickly, meaning faster lanes at the airport. Those scanners, made by L-3 Communications, used millimeter waves to make an image. The company was able to come up with software that no longer produced a naked image of a traveler's body.
[...]
The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they're used in now. Another 76 are in storage.
[...]
Not all of the machines will be replaced. Castelveter said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors.
[...]
The government hadn't bought any [Rapiscan scanners] since 2011. It quietly removed them from seven major airports in October, including New York's LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, Chicago's O'Hare, and Los Angeles International. The TSA moved a handful of the X-ray scanners to very small airports. At the time, the agency said the switch was being made because millimeter-wave scanners moved passengers through faster.
Denver Post
[...]
At first, both types of scanners showed travelers naked. The idea was that security workers could spot both metallic objects like guns as well as non-metallic items such as plastic explosives. The scanners also showed every other detail of the passenger's body, too.
[...]
Congress ordered that the scanners either produce a more generic image or be removed by June.
On Thursday Rapiscan, the maker of the X-ray, or backscatter, scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn't be able to meet the June deadline.
[...]
The agency's statement also said the remaining scanners will move travelers through more quickly, meaning faster lanes at the airport. Those scanners, made by L-3 Communications, used millimeter waves to make an image. The company was able to come up with software that no longer produced a naked image of a traveler's body.
[...]
The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports they're used in now. Another 76 are in storage.
[...]
Not all of the machines will be replaced. Castelveter said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors.
[...]
The government hadn't bought any [Rapiscan scanners] since 2011. It quietly removed them from seven major airports in October, including New York's LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, Chicago's O'Hare, and Los Angeles International. The TSA moved a handful of the X-ray scanners to very small airports. At the time, the agency said the switch was being made because millimeter-wave scanners moved passengers through faster.
Denver Post
Of course what really happened is they knew that there would be fewer, less nationally noticed complaints from very small airports.
So watch for the Rapiscan manufacturer's label in your airport after June, and refuse to go through if you see one. It's illegal then by Congressional action.
Rapiscan parent company OSI Systems Inc. said it will help the TSA move the scanners to other government agencies.
[...]
"There's quite a few agencies which will have a great deal of interest" in the scanners, Edrick said.
[...]
"There's quite a few agencies which will have a great deal of interest" in the scanners, Edrick said.
"Quite a few?"
Some of them will be going to prisons, where the belonged in the first place. Wouldn't want to waste taxpayer money.
Oh, what?
[Rapiscan parent company] OSI is taking a one-time charge of $2.7 million to cover the money spent trying to develop software to blur the image, and to move the machines out of airports, Edrick said.
The contract to change the software on the scanners came under scrutiny in November when the TSA delivered a "show cause" letter to the company looking into allegations that it falsified test data.
The contract to change the software on the scanners came under scrutiny in November when the TSA delivered a "show cause" letter to the company looking into allegations that it falsified test data.
Rapiscan....is that with a short “a” as in “Rapid” or a long “a” as in “Rape”?
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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