The U.S. Transportation Security Administration effective in June said it would no longer use scanners that emitted a low-dose X-ray because the company that makes them can’t fix the privacy issues. The other airport body scanners, which produce a generic outline instead of a naked image, are staying.
At first, both types of scanners showed travelers naked. The idea was that security workers could spot both metallic objects like guns as well as non-metallic items such as plastic explosives. But the scanners also showed every other detail of the passenger’s body as well.
Initially, the TSA defended the scanners by pointing out the images couldn’t be stored and were seen only by a security worker who didn’t interact with the passenger. But the scans still raised privacy concerns. So the U.S. Congress ordered that the scanners either produce a more generic image or be removed by June.
On Jan. 17 Rapiscan, the maker of the X-ray, or backscatter scanner, acknowledged that it wouldn’t be able to meet the June deadline. The TSA said on Jan. 18 that it ended its contract for the software with Rapiscan. TSA also said the remaining scanners will move travelers through more quickly, meaning faster lanes at the airport. Those scanners, made by L-3 Communications, used millimeter waves to make an image. The company was able to come up with software that no longer produced a naked image of a traveler’s body.
The TSA will remove all 174 backscatter scanners from the 30 airports where they are currently installed. Another 76 are in storage. It has 669 of the millimeter wave machines that it is keeping, plus options for 60 more. Not all of the machines will be replaced. TSA said that some airports that now have backscatter scanners will go back to having metal detectors. That’s what most airports used before scanners were introduced.
The Rapiscan scanners reportedly have been on their way out for months. The government had not purchased any since 2011. It quietly removed them from seven major airports in October, including New York’s LaGuardia and Kennedy airports, Chicago’s O’Hare, and Los Angeles International. The TSA moved a handful of the X-ray scanners to very small airports. At the time, the agency said the switch was being made because millimeter-wave scanners moved passengers through faster.
Rapiscan parent company OSI Systems Inc. said it will help the TSA move the scanners to other government agencies. It hasn’t yet been decided where they will go. Scanners are often used in prisons or on military bases where privacy is not a concern. OSI is taking a one-time charge of $2.7 million to cover the money spent trying to develop software to blur the image, and to move the machines out of airports.
At a November congressional hearing, the TSA said it had spent $140 million on full-body scanners, with $40 million for Rapiscan machines and $100 million for the L-3. The agency has about 800 machines total at 200 airports.
