NBC News, Ben
Popken
The
Transportation Security Administration announced it has finished removing from
all airports the X-ray technology that produced graphic and controversial images of passengers passing through security screening checkpoints.
An image released by the TSA showing how the new passenger screenings will appear to operators. |
In a letter
released Thursday, TSA administrator John Pistole told the House Homeland
Security committee that as of May 16, all US airports scanners equipped with
the ability to produce the penetrating images will now only show a generic
outline of a passenger to the operator. A colored box pops up if the full-body
scanner detects a potentially forbidden item.
The TSA
beat their deadline by two weeks for modifying the scanners. The technology was
originally mandated to be removed by June 2012 under the Federal Aviation
Administration's Modernization and Reform Act of 2012, but the deadline was
extended to May 31, 2013.
The
machines, which the TSA first deployed in 2008, provoked public outrage as the
technology, better able than traditional X-rays to detect hidden contraband,
also created images that appeared as if they were "virtual nudes."
Critics called this an invasion of privacy and questioned whether the scanning
devices truly lacked the ability to save the images, as the TSA claimed.
Scientists have
revealed flaws in the controversial full
body-scanners
|
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