Originally Posted by
BSBD
Neither. The "random" alarm (now called the "quota" alarm) that signals you've been selected for additional screening is a standard TSA policy that has been in place for over a year now. There have been quite a few discussions on FT about this.
The difference is that they now seem to be sending you through the body scanner, if available, rather than just giving you a hand swab. This has happened to me a handful of times. Before this year, I always just got swabbed.