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TSA Body Scanners To Show Less Revealing Images
tgtanman writes "The Washington Post reports that the TSA will begin installing new software on millimeter wave body scanners at 41 airports that will replace the controversial body images with generic images of the body. While the change is currently limited to millimeter wave scanners, similar upgrades for backscatter scanners is being developed, according to the TSA. The ACLU has applauded the changes but continues to note other concerns with the scanners."
Now people can applaud them for doing the good thing and changing the controversial scanners to better ones. I don't feel so bad anymore. Good job!
wait, didn't I still lose privacy somewhere in the process?
Google+ vs. Facebook, and why Google+ will fail
http://www.clker.com/cliparts/e/5/d/9/1194984539216837021man02.svg.med.png
Does it matter if it's less revealing if the radiation is just as dangerous?
Does it matter if it's ineffective now and continues to be ineffective?
I think we could better spend the money on monitoring the TSA screeners who keep stealing our stuff.
While it's slightly less of an invasion, it doesn't change the invasive nature of these scans, nor does it address the possible health concerns. It's still an invasive search of your person without probable cause, and they're still ineffective at detecting even known types of dangerous items. Ineffective, invasive, (violating the conditions for a legal administrative airport security search) and without probable cause, that means they're still prohibited by the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution.
make imaginary.friends COUNT=100 VISIBLE=false
Get fucking rid of them. And the TSA. But now that those assholes unionized, they'll never go away I'm sure. Land of the slave, home of the serf.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
What does radiation have to do with the gross adjustment of your bones?
If I have high exposure to radiation, why on Earth should I see a chiropractor and not an actual doctor?
If it was possible to do this in software to begin with, and they knew the images were "controversial" to begin with, why the hell didn't they just do this from the very beginning? My understanding of the system was that it was the fact that the images revealed everything, so to speak, that they were effective. So either they need to be revealing (which they clearly don't), or they've just been lying the whole time.
Which brings me to my second question. Who is being paid to develop this software? Is this literally a case where they could have done something in the beginning, but didn't so that they could charge extra later, and then look like good guys because they are "protecting our rights"? Or am I missing something here? Because it looks very much to me like this move shows that they were pressing as hard as they could to see how far they could go "to stop terrorists", then, when people object, stepping back the tiniest inch (and BTW, anyone who doesn't go through these still has to be frisked) and trying to look like good guys.
Seriously, this absolutely reeks of deception and probably downright lying. Of course, now people will back off and the TSA can continue with their security theater. The ACLU doesn't need to applaud this decision: they need to launch a class action lawsuit and corruption investigation to shut down the TSA.
"None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license." --John Milton
It's still the SAME thing. They're still regularly blasting folks with unnecessary radiation. Still misappropriating priorities and funds.
Let's be real - how many planes are going to be coming down with knives and similar now that The Door (tm) is in place? Perhaps I'm grossly misinformed - if so, by all means educate me. But I'd rather see more investments being made in explosive detection.
Heck, there was a story recently about the TSA busting a guy with C4 by using an explosive detection device.
People still look a the naked body scans, they're just not doing it there in front of you any more. Scans are sent somewhere else to be examined. This is a total scam to appease the masses while still doing business as usual.
Then of course you still have all the other issues mentioned in this thread.
The scanners already don't work, making them work less well isn't going to help anything. From the day they rolled out they couldn't detect the one thing they were meant to, (the explosives used by the underpants bomber weren't dense enough to show up in the scans).
It was possible that the scanners could catch something, though, which won't be the case if they lower the resolution. This is taking security theatre and turning it into a Michael Bay action movie, without any pretense of the original premise, (i.e. security).
It will be interesting to know who gets the contracts to make these scanners and a huge revenue every time they release a new version. It will be surprising to know
1- How much it makes to build these scanners
2-How much government pays for those
3-And how often TSA makes such changes to put new versions into production and use tax payer money
4- Which companies make these scanners and whether they have any known subsidiaries or parent group of companies.
Don't try to fool me. Everybody knows that chiropractic medicine is quack science, just like global warming or vaccinations for children. The truth is that subluxations are easily cured with a homeopathic bleach solution. And don't get me started on radiation. Just sleep under a crystal pyramid each night like a normal person and you don't have to worry about radiation. Or Thetans.
"Once in Hawaii I had sex with a 102 year old male turtle. It is difficult to argue that it was consensual." - Steve Ma
Let's be perfectly clear on this, the purpose of these body scanners was NEVER to increase security, it was a gigantic kickback to former homeland security chief Michael Chertoff who received very well documented "consulting" positions with the company that makes those scanners. They are no more secure than competing, less invasive scanners, but the manufacturers of those scanners obviously didn't bribe the right officials.
Monstar L
Instead of removing the problem, lets spend time (and money?) to add a 'feature' to lessen the problem instead of just shoving those stupid devices off a cliff.
They should let me run airport security, well have x-rays and bomb sniffing for bags, metal detectors, and bomb sniffing dogs for people. If you're allergic to dogs then, you can go through a bomb sniffing machine. ta da airport secure! No I won't search your laptop/iphone for porn, no I won't cavity search you for drugs. I'm not worried about you breaking the law I'm worried about keeping people safe. So long as you're not carrying any weapons you're fine.
Only in the USA could "someone seeing an x-ray of my dick" be considered more serious than having all your communications monitored by the government.
I am someone who frequently travels. And by that I mean at least two, and up to 5 flights a week. I've yet to see a full body scanner at any Priority Access/I First Class/Business Class/blah blah line that I travel in. To me, I think it's because they know that this just wouldn't stand for the people who really bankroll the airlines.
To me, even though I benefit from this, this is insane. I should be scanned just like everyone else (albeit in a much shorter line) if it's really about security. But I don't think it's about security. Just like everyone else here, I think it's all about the theater of it all, and they do pretty well at that.
That being said, I accidentally brought through a bottle of water a few weeks ago, and a corkscrew a few weeks before that. I didn't mean to, and meant to leave them at one of the hotels I normally stay at. No idea they were there. I really question the amount of actual security is being provided, given that I waste hours a week (even in priority lanes) waiting at security.
Anon and Lulzsec are about as effective as someone spray painting on some mob boss's house, and Wikileak's does what it does so that the rest of a nation will get off their asses and demand justice/change for the better. In short, we're pretty much on our own when it comes to the TSA. Better start thinking up some plan against them.
Freedom Groping is still an option.
http://www.copblock.org/6076/woman-charged-with-felony-after-groping-female-tsa-agent/
Wait, so you're into chiropractics and you think think that these are deadly dangerous...
Cool, they're probably fine then. I shall no longer worry about it. Not that I really did anyway.
A Chiropractor? The real scam is that loons like you are licensed by anybody to do anything. I believe I heard it best on Penn & Teller's Bullshit - "baby twisting motherfuckers"
Too little too late. I'm not flying until they trash 'em all.
"Dr." Bob,
Don't take this the wrong way, but please fuck off with the whole subluxation thing.
You have a gift for relating any story to chiropractic issues, but it's starting to wear a bit thin. You need to understand that the kind of folks who frequent this board are the ones that prefer their research to come peer-reviewed, double-blind tested and based on at least a small shred of reality. Otherwise, you'll just end up getting lumped into the same pile as Mormons, Scientologists and Jenny McCarthy. And nobody deserves to get thrown on a pile of Jenn McCarthy.
Last time I traveled on a plane I didn't even get a metal detector waved over me. I didn't even have to talk to a person, just scan the barcode on my ticket as I walked through the gate
It's the same image, they just draw a smiley face on it.
Want to fly? Then STFU and go through the body scanner. I doubt TSA gets enjoyment out of patting people down or looking at body scan images. It's their job to screen people and keep the flights safe.
Troll Rating: 3/10.
Brilliantly done, sir. I wish there was a "+1 Troll" option - you already hooked half a dozen... How long did you have to wait for a body scanner article to post this?
And for those who thought this was real, here are two other very real, very scary sites:
The Onion
Christwire
And all I want to know is will I still get a free groping at the airport? It's FREE people. jeez...
Been on a bus lately? Shit, I'll take my chances with the nukeatron and getting felt up at the airport. At least I have some assurance that my blood will stay in my body by the time I reach my destination.
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
It's sad how far down the shitter we are, namely past the point of no return. If the supreme court ruled against these invasive searches, it would stop, but scotus almost always sides with the federal government. If travelers protested by not travelling by air it would stop, but that certainly isn't going to happen. All the budget problems won't stop it, the government would sooner cut education than "defense." It's not realistic to see a genuine concerted effort by the majority of the public to stop this. Sure there are stories that infuriate the populace from time to time, but generally speaking those stories are quickly forgotten, with the occasional token legislation to treat a symptom of the disease, but not the disease itself. Say what you will about the tea party (I find most of their ideals reprehensible), but they are the only party for a long time who have motivated private citizens to become politically active. While I may not agree with the legislation they try to push through, I have a great deal of respect for them, in that they actively get involved with flaws they perceive in the government rather than grumble about standing in line to get scanned or the latest TSA faux pas.
The only thing the TSA can ever do to gain my applause is to disband.
I heard that Al Qaeda was going to use rogue TSA agents to smuggle explosives into the secure areas of the airports.
The only way to be sure is to perform a cavity check on each and every TSA agent when they arrive for work, every day they show up.
Spread the word about this risk.
This sig is not paradoxical or ironic.
http://thewashingtonfancy.com/2011/06/man-takes-viagra-wears-sweatpants-for-tsa-pat-down/
The Christian religion has been and still is the principal enemy of moral progress in the world. -- Bertrand Russell
I don't get it - if the guy's a troll, he's certainly a very odd troll. His posts have been consistently batshit insane. His Facebook page has over 500 friends, but almost all of them appear to be chiropractors. He may have gone out and tried to friend every chiropractor he could find online, and if so that just seems a bit sad. If he's trying to get a rise of tech geeks, spine adjustments is a very obscure attack vector.
If it's an attempt to discredit chiropractors, it's a pretty brilliant Kaufmanesque move. However, I'm going to apply Occam's Razor and say that the most likely answer is that he's a total nutjob.
Dude, the reason you keep getting modded as troll isn't because there are still some of us dumb enough to bite, it's because that if you put your mind to it, you can actually be funny, like you were in that cyberwar book review today. Please, try for moar of that and less of this.
The man is a genius. You'll note that only the first sentence and the first few words of the second paragraph actually refer to the TSA scanners, the rest is simply about "radiation" - and a frist psot, at that - pure genius.
It is for the millimeter wave ones. Those ones are not ionizing radiation (as the wavelength indicates, it is below visible light). Remember there are two different kinds of body scanners out there.
His posts have been consistently batshit insane.
If anything, a very clear hallmark of a troll. Normal people usually post sane comments occasionally (unless their mother named them Michael Kristopeit, anyway).
His Facebook page has over 500 friends, but almost all of them appear to be chiropractors.
Anyone can create a fake FB account and friend some people. The question is, how many people have friended him?
And even that wouldn't tell you much. Many people will friend anyone who friends them if there is so much as a distant reason - and for chiropractors, being in the same "business" and spreading the word certainly counts as a valid reason.
If he's trying to get a rise of tech geeks, spine adjustments is a very obscure attack vector.
Slashdot is very much negative towards any form of pseudoscience - just read comments in any story on homeopathy. Chiropractics usually get mentioned in such discussions pretty fast, as well. And it doesn't take long reading Slashdot to find that out. So, if anything, this guy is not even particularly creative in his choice of the subject matter.
Really, though, the only piece of evidence that you need to know to realize that it's a troll is that he consistently posts flamebaits as first posts. His only other comments are occasional replies to anyone who bites the bait, in that same thread.
They were not real useful without the software because the idiots operating them didn't know what to look for. A magnetometer is right on par with what a no-training TSA 'tard can deal with: Greed = good, red = bad. It tells them when there's a problem. The mmW scanners didn't do that. They produced an image you had to analyze, which is something they were bad at. At Denver they were sending people through, but then taking them for a pat down because the moron running the thing kept saying he couldn't figure out what he was seeing. It was actually LESS secure than using a normal metal detector.
With this software, they might be useful again. The person running them can see if there's a problem. Still a huge waste of money, but at least now they are a step back in security.
Of course it only works on the mmW ones, not the backscatter X-ray ones.
Don't get me wrong, someone who would go to this extent and length to satirize chiropractic medicine on site like slashdot almost has to be a bit messed up. But brilliant, nonetheless.
And I'd argue based on the pure number of "perfect" flags of chiropractic quackery that Occam's Razor argues the opposite. If he's a nutjob he's one in a million... (but one can dream).
... but we take care to not go all the way in!
These x-ray scanners give you a much smaller ionizing radiation dose than you'll get from the flight itself
True but any radiation exposure increases the risk of cancer. The risk is acceptable if there is a corresponding benefit to be gained from taking it. However for security screening X-raying is not needed. Tera-hertz imaging can produce the same quality of images with no known risks. There are some people concerned about it but, if there is a harmful effect, it is so small that it has not yet been detected. This is before you even start asking about effective this type of screening really is at stopping terrorists.
Although I disagree with it, I can see the argument for security theatre like this but when that theatre increases the risk to my health, even by a tiny "almost negligible" amount, for no reason it has gone too far. Besides, multiply that tiny risk factor by the ~800 million people who fly each year and you'll almost certainly get a number greater than one as the people who will get cancer each year just from airport security scans.
Increased cancer risk is a small price to pay for false security.
The first generation of scanners was crap. Even if you came down from your hermit cottage for the first time in years, and watched a scan of a person of the opposite (?) sex, it would definatly NOT give you a boner, therefor NOT making it in any way invasive or controversial. Making the second generation scanners even less revealing is just a slap in the face! Airport staff need some sort of excitement in their daily work..
The TSA has repeatedly lied about these scanners in the past, why should they be believed now?
But are we still at security theater or are we now patting and scanning everyone? Last I heard is that kids don't get scanned (ok, I can see why they shouldn't be patted...). And while I understand the argument, the whole thing is rendered pointless if that's the practice: If you don't test everyone, you can just as well not test anyone. Security is the security of the weakest link, and if I can stick my bomb to little Ali to get it on board, I'll do just that if I'm enough of a lunatic to accept blowing myself up as a really good idea. Ali's gonna be a hero and beloved of whatever deity I abuse for the whole shit.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If it actually brought on any security, I'd maybe even consider accepting it.
I dunno if I'm already a terrorist if I just list the ways you could avoid and evade the whole security theater and get pretty much anything but a megaton nuke on board of a plane, so I'll refrain. But if you know at least a hint of airport dealings and how things run at most airports, the whole thing simply disgusts you.
You might FEEL safer. But only if you never worked at an airport and never had to audit airport security (that's where I lost every semblance of a feeling of security). Hell, most of the things are even blatantly obvious to people who fly frequently.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
You are a loony. People will dismiss what you say as lonny babble and may associate your nonsense with the real reasons to avoid the TSAs lightly tested radiation machines.
You do the world a great disservice with your crazy talk.
Don't try to fool me. Everybody knows that chiropractic medicine is quack science, just like global warming or vaccinations for children. The truth is that subluxations are easily cured with a homeopathic bleach solution. And don't get me started on radiation. Just sleep under a crystal pyramid each night like a normal person and you don't have to worry about radiation. Or Thetans.
Don't try to out-looney the resident looney. It won't work.
Wait, so you're into chiropractics and you think think that these are deadly dangerous...
Cool, they're probably fine then. I shall no longer worry about it. Not that I really did anyway.
He is really from the TSAs marketing department trying to make you believe these machines are harmless.
Most likely they are harmless but we can't be totally sure for another 10 years at least.
why the hell didn't they just do this from the very beginning?
For the public
i) gov/corps set very low standards for new system or update
ii) gov/corps raise standard ever so slightly when people complain, but principle of the search is accepted.
iii) wait a while
iv) goto i)
For corporations it is
i) profit from sales
ii) profit from changes
iii) count profits, buy yacht and say 'buahahaahaaahaaaa' very quietly out of public view
iv) goto i)
The scenes where he walks through the public security and it shows only a green skeletal outline and highlighted anything "not human" would have been a great solution. Probably outside the their ability at this time but the whole process has to be as natural as walking past a window.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Pedobear and other lecherous friends are sad. No more HD porn, only low-res soft porn now. Damn rights activists!
2019 is going to be the year of Linux on the desktop.
For shame, slashdot. When did we get to the point that conspiracy-theory garbage automatically gets modded +5 without even a cursory citation?
This place has really degenerated.
Adam Savage, of Mythbusters fame, walked through a full body scanner with 2, 12 inch foam cutter blades in his coat pocket, by accident, undetected. WAY TO GO TSA, THESE THINGS SURE DO WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
"You have a gift for relating any story to chiropractic issues, but it's starting to wear a bit thin."
Really? I consider it a running gag and I'm always a little bit disappointed if Doctor Bob doesn't have the first subluxation reply.
"Anyone can create a fake FB account and friend some people. The question is, how many people have friended him?"
Anyone can create 500 fake FB accounts and friend themselves.
The truth is that subluxations are easily cured with a homeopathic bleach solution.
A very weak one with minimal water.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
And the curiously erroneous results.
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/03/tsa-radiation-test-bungling/
Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
I have to say, though, that I rather appreciate a bit of creativity in his trolling. Trolling is a art, and things nowadays are usually just goatse and/or spewing racial epithets.
Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
Land of the free home of the brave HA HA
Less Information
TSA "Screwing the American public since 2001"
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
As a regular flyer I can attest to this. I came up with about 5 different ways to get anything I want on an airplane one afternoon while sitting bored in an airport pub waiting for my flight to board.
Here's just a simple example. On international flights, you get to go shopping in the no-tax zone. The security is before you enter the zone. There is absolutely nothing that checks the safety of anything you bought while there (and by definition whatever you buy is now hand-luggage).
Most of those zones include shopping for all sorts of things - not least I've never seen one without a pharmacy (meaning you can buy quite a lot of chemicals there ) and liquor stores (so much for no glassware on a plane when I can carry all the whiskey bottles I want, as every barfighter knows a pretty dangerous weaon - and filled with a flammable contents).
See, unlike you, I'm not subject to US jurisdiction and the TSA can suck me if they think I'll be afraid to point out how useless they are. If I wanted to get weapons on a plane nothing they are doing would stop me in the slightest. This is just one example - buy the weapons at the airport on the other side of the security gate.
So you need to be a bit inventive (I've yet to see a gunstore in a no-tax zone) but it hardly takes McGuyver genius to turn a whiskey bottle into a weapon or make a smoke-bomb out of pharmacy-grade over-the-counter saltpeter.
Unicode killed the ASCII-art *
But can he spell potatoes? That is the question.
Still tooting your own horn, eh? What a joke. Always pointing the finger but never contributing anything worthwhile. I've seen a lot of your kind in my day.
So, if I have a contraband that I wanted to smuggle onboard, I'd only have to make it appear to be naughty bits of the human anatomy and the machine will auto-replace it with generic crotch images? hooray to gun-shaped penis, or is it penis-shaped gun?
with Michael Chertoff scanners.
4th item:
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/full-body-scanner-lobby-michael-chertoff-rapiscan-2552674.html
Frankly, it's common knowledge.
You do realize you're being trolled, right? And for what it's worth, it's some of the best trolling I've ever seen. It's tangentially on-topic but beyond rational discussion, the ratio of people amused by it to people pissed off by seems to be pretty even and he's not taking the easy way out by linking goatse or pasting some kind of racial slur. You should be happy to be trolled by someone who puts so much effort into it. If you're not, at least the rest of us are amused by your walking right into it.
They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
Sounds to me that they found a way to "upgrade" the useless systems at the public's expense.
Well, I don't know about YOUR definition of "representing", but when someone hires my company (me), I am most certainly "representing" them.
LOL, as for his "lobbying", go do some research - Chertoff advocated heavily and repeated for the full body scanners (such as those made by Rapidscan) after the underwear bombing claiming they would have detected the explosives.
He made no mention that this was an international flight and that the explosive would NOT have been detected - the full body scanners are deployed to the US, not internationally.
If you were a penetration testing expert and you claimed schools should buy them because they can't be hacked into...then yes I could claim you were shilling.
In fact, I have claimed that multiple testing organizations have shilled for Microsoft both now and in the past because they received cash and then "claimed" that Microsoft systems provided a clear advantage over their competitors. Where do you think FUD comes from? (Or do you think FUD is purely fiction?)
If you don't want to connect the dots - that's your business, but Chertoff was hired by Rapidscan and Rapidscan is doing business with the Government.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/31/AR2009123101746.html
What's curious about this: at the time - there was only one company that made full body scanners - Rapiscan.
A stupid non-issue to an AC with the mental capacity of a retarded fetus maybe.
There goes my incentive for working out