Backscatter machines shelved but scanning fears remain

The TSA reports on their blog that all their Rapiscan backscatter units at US airports  "will be removed by Rapiscan at their expense and stored until they can be redeployed to other mission priorities within the government."

The backscatter units are the ones which see through clothes and which have created controversy for the degrees of radiation they use, the way it moves across the body and for the invasion of privacy involved. 

Recently, an ex-TSA officer wrote on his blog, Taking Sense Away that security personnel regularly gather in the back rooms where scans are viewed to snigger and make off-color remarks about passengers—an allegation the TSA refutes.

The TSA says the Rapiscan machines are being removed now because the company cannot add the Automated Target Recognition (ATR) software now mandated by the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 which obfuscates passenger privates from view.

The Rapiscan machines will be replaced by L3 Millimeter Wave body scanners equipped with the privacy software.

But as they say on informercials…wait, there’s more.

Wired.com reports that France and Germany do not use the Millimeter Wave body scanners, which work by radio frequency, because of numerous false positives that can occur even through such normal occurrences as sweat and folds in clothing.  And while the Millimeter Wave machines use radio waves rather than radiation, some technology websites are reporting that there are no reliable clinical studies regarding their use and that more should be known about them before the public is herded through their portals. 

The TSAs blog suggests that the move to replace the backscatter machines (the risk of which has always been downplayed by the agency) was not for the health of passengers but because the Rapiscan company could not provide the required privacy shields in time.

It is also important to note that the TSA’s statement closes by saying, "As always, the use of this technology is optional" referring to the fact that legally, passengers should always be able to opt out of the scan for a pat down—a fact that is not always top of mind in some TSA officers who have repeatedly told members of the flying public outright or implied that there is no choice and they have to go through the full body scan.

–Gretchen Kelly