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TSA "Porno Scanners" Banished For Less Terrible Technology
By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jan 20, 2013
Modified Jan 20, 2013
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By
Christopher Robbins
Published Jan 20, 2013
Modified Jan 20, 2013
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The TSA has terminated their contract with reviled "porno scanner" manufacturer OSI Systems. For fellow downtrodden airport travelers, this means we'll no longer have the word "Rapiscan" to mutter under our breath as we clench our teeth and enter a glass Tube of Shame just so we can get on another fetid tube so we can catch a connecting flight in Charlotte.
Why ditch the Chertoff-approved Freedom Scanners? OSI systems failed to come up with a software that didn't violate travelers' rights as part of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012 (there's some Sunday reading for you). OSI's machines continued to use backscatter radiation to show TSA employees the private, graphic contours of their fellow man, instead of projecting any illicit items carried by a traveler on top of a non-arousing avatar. That task will now fall to the New York City based company L-3 and their less-intrusive millimeter wave units, which La Guardia, JFK, and Newark have already been using.
Now if we can only convince TSA employees that our contact solution isn't nitroglycerin we'll have made progress.
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Christopher Robbins
Christopher Robbins is a New York City reporter covering transportation, affordable housing, local politics, and criminal justice. His work has also appeared in New York Magazine, The Village Voice and The New York Times. Chris is a graduate of Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, Virginia, and enjoys biking to Fort Tilden in the summertime.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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