TSA to remove controversial naked X-ray scanners
Those airport scanners with their all-too revealing body images will soon be going away.
The Transportation Security Administration says the X-ray scanners 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.
The government rapidly stepped up its use of body scanners after a man snuck explosives onto a flight bound for Detroit on Christmas day in 2009.
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. They also showed every other detail of the passenger's body, too.
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.
On Thursday Rapiscan, the maker of the X-ray scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn't be able to meet the June deadline. The TSA said Friday that it ended its contract with Rapiscan.
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.
Rapiscan parent company OSI Systems Inc. said it will help the TSA move the scanners to other undisclosed government agencies. Scanners are often used in prisons or on military bases where privacy is not a concern.
OSI said it will maintain a scanner contract with the TSA, but would take a one-time charge of $2.7 million.
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, which the company denied. On Thursday it said final resolution of that issue needs approval by the Department of Homeland Security.
The agreement with the TSA is an indication that OSI Systems will be cleared of the issues raised by the agency, Roth Capital Partners analyst Jeff Martin wrote on Friday. OSI shares jumped $2.79, or 4.1 percent, to $70.44.
Besides the scanners being dropped by TSA, Hawthorne, Calif.-based OSI Systems makes other passenger scanners used in other countries, as well as luggage scanners and medical scanners.
The Transportation Security Administration says the X-ray scanners 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.
The government rapidly stepped up its use of body scanners after a man snuck explosives onto a flight bound for Detroit on Christmas day in 2009.
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. They also showed every other detail of the passenger's body, too.
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.
On Thursday Rapiscan, the maker of the X-ray scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn't be able to meet the June deadline. The TSA said Friday that it ended its contract with Rapiscan.
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.
Rapiscan parent company OSI Systems Inc. said it will help the TSA move the scanners to other undisclosed government agencies. Scanners are often used in prisons or on military bases where privacy is not a concern.
OSI said it will maintain a scanner contract with the TSA, but would take a one-time charge of $2.7 million.
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, which the company denied. On Thursday it said final resolution of that issue needs approval by the Department of Homeland Security.
The agreement with the TSA is an indication that OSI Systems will be cleared of the issues raised by the agency, Roth Capital Partners analyst Jeff Martin wrote on Friday. OSI shares jumped $2.79, or 4.1 percent, to $70.44.
Besides the scanners being dropped by TSA, Hawthorne, Calif.-based OSI Systems makes other passenger scanners used in other countries, as well as luggage scanners and medical scanners.
Looking for ways to streamline the federal budget? Get rid of ridiculous, superficial, draconian agencies like the TSA and DHS. That should save a few pennies and a lot of headaches.
How nice of them to remove these things after millions of dollars have been wasted on them.
Even in San Francisco? I thought those folks liked nudity in public.
 @jpk ~ You know, I've never been able to figure that one out..!  I lived / worked in SF some years ago now, but I don't remember that many days in the year when it was even close to warm enough to run around with no clothes on..!   (LA maybe, but SF???)
To each their own, I guess...
There was a story in today's Oregonian about a federal judge ruling that public nudity in San Francisco was not an exercise of the First Amendment.
The TSA pervs at the gates are going to be very disappointed.
They''ll now have to get their jollies as peeping Toms in your backyard,
or as up-skirt photographers.
On another note, I've heard from defense contractors that if you fail to deliver a government contract for which they have already paid you, your company might be labeled a "hostile vendor" which means it's illegal for the government to do business with you. That's capital punishment for companies who only provide to the government.
 @Playanekes Unle$$ the company grease$ the right palm$ in Washington DC
I went through two of those in Phoenix. Also, I forgot to take the flare gun out of my flight bag, so, they X-rayed me and deemed me safe but I still got ballistic incendiary devices on the plane. Any of you old vets remember the black pen-flares with the red screw-on cartridges? Oops.
The TSA continues to a pack of liars. None of the machines (millimeter nor naked body scanners) have been privately tested as to the amount of radiation emitted. The TSA lies when they claim the images couldn't have been kept when then it fact was part of the contract requirements, so they could be saved, printed, transmitted etc.Â
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The privacy issue is a red herring. The TSA has NEVER cared about privacy. Pretty hard to make that claim when they're groping everyone from babies to grandmothers out in the open.Â
@axpman if you're over 75, I think it is, you don't have to take your shoes or sweater off in the Minneapolis airport lines.
 @Playanekes  @axpman Yep over 75 or under 10 I think.
@Playanekes I noticed that sign at the TSA check in line the other day. What gives? Don't they think terrorists get cold? Sounds like selective enforcement to me.
Now if only they would get rid of the "touchy feely" pat-downs . . .
The administration of the TSA continues to be a disappointment. The machines should never have been purchased and installed in the first place. You know something is really bad when Congress actually acts on something.
 OK I am for getting rid of these also....but again why wasn't this thought out before-hand... more money (and lots of it) thrown down the drain!!
 @shadowwalker Having seen it from first-hand experience..
 The amount of money outright wasted to shoddy contractors, failed products, bogus POs, etc. would make the jaws drop of even the most critical people of governmental 'fiscal' overseers.
The total cost of government could be reduced by about 25%-30% by SIGNIFICANTLY reworking the way contracts are solicited, bid and awarded. Â The process is WAY TOO bureaucratized and takes into account every factor OTHER than 'is this is sufficient / quality product and does it do the job for the amount stated' -- there is WAY TOO many preferences given to people that do not deserve them, or to businesses that know how to get away with 'single-source' / non-competitive bid arrangement.
I have no problem keeping Federal people doing a job supplied with a paycheck (provided they are actually DOING the job of course...) but when it crosses into just becoming one big scam, that is an entirely different thing. Â Want to decrease the Federal budget deficit? Don't pi$$ it away to people that are going to take the money and not live up to their obligations and/or provide a faulty product.
@ThePosterFormerlyKnownAsPhredE @shadowwalker Perhaps a lot of this "fear mongering equipment" was utilized to distract people away from things like the "Patriot Act" and other exective orders the Bush and now Obama have been signing continuously chipping away at the Constitution and our very freedoms?
 @shadowwalker ~  I agree 100%... Seems to me that these issues would have been MORE than apparent to anyone looking at the proposed images of the people being subjected to this type of a scan.  Â
Typical, though, of our govt just charging into something knee-jerk-style, and without sufficient thought beforehand...