This article is more than 1 year old

TSA to revise nudie scanner software

Security theatre gets a ‘G’ rating

America’s Transport Security Administration has decided it doesn’t need full nude outlines to work out whether or not someone is carrying a bomb under their clothing.

Since their introduction, the voyeuristic millimeter-wave scanners have been defended by the TSA as indispensable, in spite of failing to detect guns in tests, and triggering outrage at the detail revealed by the devices.

Example imagery produced by AIT millimetre wave airport scanner. Credit: TSA

Nudie scans on the way out

Others have criticized the scanners as unnecessarily irradiating both travelers and their operators.

According to the Washington Post, the TSA has bowed, at least on the matter of privacy. Instead of projecting the target’s victim’s traveller’s scanned body image on the operator’s screen, the administration is rolling out new software that will display a generic human outline identifying any concealed objects it discovers.

Lapsing into the jargon of someone terminally-infected by the managerial virus, TSA administrator John Pistole said the new software will maintain security “while improving the passenger experience at checkpoints”.

The new software is, according to the Washington Post, a response to a “vocal minority of Americans”. It adds that those triggering an alert, along with those who refuse scanning, will still get a TSA groping pat-down (including, we presume, grandmothers and children).

The software has undergone a six-month test, and will now be installed at the 41 airports using the scanners. ®

More about

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like