TSA To Remove Body Scanners from US Airports.

[Ragnus]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...-airports.html

The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will remove airport body scanners that privacy advocates likened to strip searches after OSI Systems Inc. (OSIS) couldn’t write software to make passenger images less revealing.

TSA will end a $5 million contract with OSI’s Rapiscan unit for the software after Administrator John Pistole concluded the company couldn’t meet a congressional deadline to produce generic passenger images, agency officials said in interviews.

The agency removed 76 of the machines from busier U.S. airports last year. It will now get rid of the remaining 174 Rapiscan machines, with the company absorbing the cost, said Karen Shelton Waters, the agency’s assistant administrator for acquisitions. The TSA will instead use 60 machines manufactured by L-3 Communications Holdings Inc. (LLL), the agency’s other supplier of body scanners.
“It became clear to TSA they would be unable to meet our timeline,” Waters said.
“As a result of that, we terminated the contract for the convenience of the government.”

The decision to cancel the Rapiscan software contract and remove its scanners wasn’t related to an agency probe of whether the company faked testing data on the software fix, Waters said.

In November, Representative Mike Rogers, then chairman of the House Transportation Security subcommittee, wrote in a letter to Pistole that the company “may have attempted to defraud the government by knowingly manipulating an operational test.” Rogers, a Michigan Republican, said the panel had received a tip about falsified tests.

Rapiscan has denied manipulating data or information related to the reviews.

Underwear Bomber

OSI Systems is “pleased to reach a mutually satisfactory agreement with the TSA” that will involve moving the machines to other government agencies, Chief Executive Officer Deepak Chopra said in a statement. The company, based in Hawthorne, California, said it expects to report a $2.7 million one-time charge during the quarter that ended Dec. 31.

The TSA accelerated its use of advanced scanners in 2010 following the failed Dec. 25, 2009, attempt by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to blow up a Northwest Airlines flight by igniting explosives in his underwear.

L-3 scanning machines rely on millimeter-wave technology, which uses radio frequencies that can find both metallic and non-metallic items. Rapiscan’s machines are based on backscatter technology, which uses low-dose X-ray radiation to detect objects under a passenger’s clothes.

Privacy Objections

Airline passengers were offended by the revealing images, including those of children and the elderly. The Washington- based Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the agency in July 2010 claiming the scanners violated privacy laws and has called use of the machines equivalent to a “physically invasive strip search.”

Under pressure from privacy advocates and some members of Congress, the TSA moved its screens to separate rooms away from airport security checkpoints. Officials monitoring the scanner images alert agents if they see a possible risk.

The agency put out a contract in August 2010 asking L-3 and Rapiscan to develop the software to make images less revealing. L-3 developed its product in 2011, according to John Sanders, the TSA’s assistant administrator for security capabilities.

Rapiscan recently indicated to agency officials that it couldn’t deliver its software until 2014, Sanders said. It couldn’t come up with an algorithm that met the agency’s standards for accurately detecting objects without generating false alarms, he said.

‘Everybody’s Alarming’

“You can have a high probability of detection but a great deal of alarm,” Sanders said. “Everybody’s alarming. That doesn’t work from an operational perspective.”
TSA has contracted with L-3, Smiths Group Plc (SMIN) and American Science & Engineering Inc. (ASEI) for new body-image scanners, all of which must have privacy software. L-3 and Smiths used millimeter-wave technology. American Science uses backscatter.

The agency’s strategy for handling passenger traffic relies on the capability of L-3’s millimeter-wave machines to process passengers in about half the time as Rapiscan machines, Sanders said. TSA will be getting about 60 more L-3 scanners in January and February, he said.

TSA is also planning to move some scanners from airports where they’re underutilized to busier airports, Sanders said. The agency plans to expand the PreCheck program, in which passengers share personal data before going to the airport in exchange for less-invasive screening that lets them keep their belts and shoes on.

PreCheck passengers go through metal detectors instead of body-image scanners. As PreCheck expands, it will free up millimeter-wave machines to ease crowding, Sanders said.

‘Congressional Mandate’

Sanders said the Rapiscan units did their job by screening 130 million passengers, and the agency wouldn’t have acted if not for the congressional mandate for privacy software.

“We are not pulling them out because they haven’t been effective, and we are not pulling them out for safety reasons,” Sanders said. “We’re pulling them out because there’s a congressional mandate.”

The TSA is talking to other government agencies with screening needs that might not require the same level of privacy called for in a crowded airport, Sanders said.

On the comment that they're not pulling them due to a lack of effectiveness in my opinion.

[Stromgarde]

But they are effective. At imaging your junk.

[Outlaw]

How long till Fox news does a bit on this and blames Obama for taking them away? "We're not safe!"

[Cream Soda]

in b4 plane hijack

[Acevalefor]

The Facebook memes have already started. One family member posted a picture of a TSA agent patting down a nun with the caption "Obama would rather feel you up than take naked pictures of you."

what the fucking fuck? I wish I could pretend some family members didn't exist.

[Ragnus]

That's.... saddening....

[Aristio]

The Facebook memes have already started. One family member posted a picture of a TSA agent patting down a nun with the caption "Obama would rather feel you up than take naked pictures of you."

what the fucking fuck? I wish I could pretend some family members didn't exist.

Easiest way is to unfriend all your family. Works for me.

[Tajin]

No more taking my shoes off at the airport?

[kuronosan]

No, this just means people will go through the metal detectors and get felt up more often.

I went through a body scanner my last time through an airport. So did my wife. No fucks were given.

[Melena]

Ok, I read that they are just using a different body scanner that puts up a generic person as the image instead of essentially a nude body.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/traf...removing-naked

he TSA said on Friday that San Jose and Oakland international airports will remove the controversial full-body scanners that show a naked-body-like image of passengers, removing the last of that type of security screening from the Bay Area.

The machines will be replaced by separate full-body scanners that show a generic image of a person, called an avatar, and not the X-ray of the actual passenger. The switch is part of a nationwide changeover that involves the replacement of 174 machines.
The Transportation Security Administration said that by June, Mineta San Jose International Airport will replace its eight scanners while Oakland International Airport will replace its five machines. Most of the machines were installed in 2010. The machines had previously been removed from San Francisco International Airport.It comes after a years-long privacy battle as some passengers have complained the scanners give TSA screeners an image that looks like an X-ray of the passenger's naked body as they pass through security lanes. Passengers who don't want to use the screeners get a pat-down by a TSA agent, which usually takes longer and can be more invasive.

The TSA said the machines by Torrance-based manufacturer Rapiscan will be removed because the company was unable to replace them with new machines that show the avatar-like images. Rapiscan will pay for the removal of the machines.

made by New York-based L-3 Communications, which already show screeners the avatar using a technology known as ATR, or Automated Target Recognition. The TSA began using the machines in 2007, and they were tested at airports like SFO in 2006. SFO, by far the Bay Area's biggest airport, received the L-3 machines in 2009 and 2010.

"By June 2013 travelers will only see machines which have ATR that allow for faster throughput," the TSA said in a statement. "This means faster lanes for the traveler and enhanced security. As always, use of this technology is optional," as passengers can choose a patdown instead.

The idea behind the scanners was that security workers could spot both metallic objects like guns as well as non-metallic items such as plastic explosives.

The TSA defended the scanners, saying the images couldn't be stored and were seen only by a security worker who didn't interact with the passenger. But the scans still raised privacy concerns. Congress ordered that the scanners either produce a more generic image or be removed by June. Rapiscan said this week it could not meet that deadline, and on Friday TSA said it ended its contract with the company.

[Ddz]

I went through a body scanner my last time through an airport. So did my wife. No fucks were given.

Seriously, this. Who fucking cares.

[Melena]

Same, wife and I went through them at SFO and LAX in June. If some guy wants to fap to my junk or my wife's tits, more power to them.

[Andalusian girls]

some may feel differently about their junk + their wife's tits

either way the other model of scanners that produce a generic image seems the perfect solution, security is not compromised and privacy advocates do not feel their rights are violated, best of all possible worlds. gogo technology

[archibaldcrane]

but radiation

[kuronosan]

Uh, who should really give a fuck if some pervert is looking at a shape of your or your wife's body? Let them do their job.

Unless they're taking pictures of your happy places and putting them on the internet you honestly shouldn't give a shit, and this is coming from someone who doesn't want some pervert looking at his wife.

I'd rather say "Hey they caught that asshole who could have bombed a plane" than "Man, good thing he didn't fap to your tits... pity our plane is going down".

[zoobernut]

Uh, who should really give a fuck if some pervert is looking at a shape of your or your wife's body? Let them do their job.

Unless they're taking pictures of your happy places and putting them on the internet you honestly shouldn't give a shit, and this is coming from someone who doesn't want some pervert looking at his wife.

I'd rather say "Hey they caught that asshole who could have bombed a plane" than "Man, good thing he didn't fap to your tits... pity our plane is going down".

The problem if I recall correctly is that this did happen. The promised the pictures could not be saved under any circumstance but they caught a TSA agent saving the pictures and possibly distributing them.

[Pooky]

The problem if I recall correctly is that this did happen. The promised the pictures could not be saved under any circumstance but they caught a TSA agent saving the pictures and possibly distributing them.

This, and the fact that they were running kids through them.

[Jer]

What was the last terrorist attack that the TSA stopped? The only ones I remember are the ones that failed because the attackers were idiots and passengers saw them trying to set their shoes/underwear/etc on fire. Hell, either last year or the year before even the Republicans said something to the effect that despite the actions of the TSA, we were no safer than before 9/11 on an airplane.

[Salodin]

What was the last terrorist attack that the TSA stopped? The only ones I remember are the ones that failed because the attackers were idiots and passengers saw them trying to set their shoes/underwear/etc on fire. Hell, either last year or the year before even the Republicans said something to the effect that despite the actions of the TSA, we were no safer than before 9/11 on an airplane.

This, mixed with pervs looking at peoples naked pictures period. The whole industry is working as a reaction instead of being proactive.

And, iirc, the pictures gave pretty good detail to the image. Not superman xray good, but enough to make people concerned.

[ringthree]

The Facebook memes have already started. One family member posted a picture of a TSA agent patting down a nun with the caption "Obama would rather feel you up than take naked pictures of you."

what the fucking fuck? I wish I could pretend some family members didn't exist.

Just remember that these were the same people flipping out about privacy when they were introduced.