New technology will enhance privacy on body scanners, TSA says

Washington (CNN) -- The Transportation Security Administration is taking steps beginning Wednesday to eliminate the image of an actual passenger in the body scanners at airports and is replacing it with a generic outline of a person.

The new software on its millimeter wave Advanced Imaging Technology machines is designed to enhance privacy but maintain security standards.

It "will auto-detect items that could pose a potential threat using a generic outline of a person for all passengers," according to a statement from the TSA.

"If no potential threats are detected, an 'OK' appears on the monitor with no outline, and the passenger is cleared," the statement said.

Passengers will be able to view the same outline a TSA officer sees, and it will no longer be necessary for a separate TSA officer to view the image in a remotely located viewing room.

Currently, there are nearly 500 imaging technology units at 78 airports in the United States and more units will be deployed this year, the TSA said. Some of the units use the millimeter wave technology, while others use so-called "backscatter" technology.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/TRAVEL/07/20...ns/index.html?

Only time will tell how screeners adapt to this. In the meantime, people are still being irradiated.

Based on the number of passengers who are seemingly patted down anyway after going through the NoS, the auto-detection can't be any less accurate than the screeners viewing the images!

I've flown only once since this kabuki theater stuff was instituted, and lucked out on my outbound flight not having to go through the nudie scanners. My destination was a small airport that only had metal detectors, so the flight back I was spared as well.

My question is - if they can do this change now, why didn't they use it from the beginning?

Still have one more flight planned for the end of this month, at which point I expect that my luck at avoiding these things will run out.

Any bets on whether the media will report that "ALL" scanners will use this new technology despite backscatters still being widely deployed?

So many in the media still perpetuate the myth of the "patdown" OR "scan" when the reality is the choice is "patdown" OR "scan likely followed immediately by patdown, with a chance for a bonus patdown at the gate"

If they go to this method, will a full patdown still be required to resolve any anomaly? If somebody leaves something in their pocket, will the screener just examine the pocket? That would make sense, but this is the TSA.

Any bets that this is just a PR stunt due to the backlash?
"Oh this machine auto-detects threats." Meanwhile there is still someone in a hidden room getting their jollies looking at your naked image.

Taking it to the next step, how likely is it that the machine will have a random, or TSO-initiated, function to "see" an anomaly, requiring a full patdown?

You know, for random auditing or attractive female passenger purposes?

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry8830/4.5.0.138 Profile/MIDP-2.0 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/105)

You Communist Islamic Fascist who wants to bring down America! How could you possibly think that???? :-)

They can do what they want. It's still a STRIP SEARCH. Lipstick on a pig.

There are two sides to the technology. As someone who has been involved in digital image processing I find the algorithmic aspects interesting. But that is as far as it goes.

From a deployment side one perhaps two positives. No private rooms for the TSO perps they will now be out in the open. Second perhaps it will now only take two instead of three TSOs to conduct the scoping.

So while the above addresses the privacy issues, it does not address the primary issue efficacy. As such, TSA can invest all they want in processing software and even address the exposure issues. Until they address the efficacy it is more money down a piss hole.

Thanks flies! I needed the laugh. I am composing a post about a couple phone conversations I had with the CS rep for the TSA and the Airport CS rep both at BUF. Spent over 30 minutes talking to the former, and 15 minutes with the latter. Would tell more, but I don't want to hijack this thread.

Is that supposed to the "Communist Islamic Fascist" mentioned in the previous post laughing at us?

Sorry, don't want to take this to OMNI, but couldn't resist...

Does not address the raw image or Backscatter.