Techdirt. Stories filed under "rapiscan" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "rapiscan"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:37:48 PST TSA Dumps Rapiscan Naked Airport Scanners After Failure To Make Them 'Less Revealing' Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130118/08091321724/tsa-dumps-rapiscan-naked-airport-scanners-after-failure-to-make-them-less-revealing.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130118/08091321724/tsa-dumps-rapiscan-naked-airport-scanners-after-failure-to-make-them-less-revealing.shtml has ended its contract with OSI and all of the remaining Rapiscan machines will be removed from airports. The main reason is that -- despite having been requested to quite some time ago, OSI failed to make a version of their naked scanner without the nakedness. While L3 was able to do that pretty quickly, apparently it was way too difficult to take the "naked" out of the Rapiscan.

The TSA insists that the decision to dump the Rapiscan has nothing to do with the recent reports and ongoing investigation into the claims that OSI manipulated tests of the Rapiscan machine to pretend that it didn't violate travelers' privacy as much as it did. However, I'm sure that didn't help OSI.

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]]> say-wha...? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20130118/08091321724 Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:35:56 PST Naked Scanner Maker Accused Of Manipulating Tests To Make Scans Look Less Invasive Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121115/17082521070/naked-scanner-maker-accused-manipulating-tests-to-make-scans-look-less-invasive.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20121115/17082521070/naked-scanner-maker-accused-manipulating-tests-to-make-scans-look-less-invasive.shtml retrofitting the various naked scanners or moving on to less privacy invasive versions, but there were two interesting points to come out some Congressional hearings on the devices yesterday. First, apparently there is some concern that the makers of the Rapiscan machine (and, yes, it still amazes me that anyone thought that was a good name), OSI Systems, may have "manipulated" tests in order to claim that the machines did not invade travelers' privacy:
The company “may have attempted to defraud the government by knowingly manipulating an operational test,” Representative Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Transportation Security Subcommittee, said in a letter to Transportation Security Administration chief John Pistole Nov. 13. Rogers said his committee received a tip about the faked tests.
OSI, of course, is denying it, but this is the same company that also apparently ran into problems last year when maintenance reports suggested radiation levels 10 times as high as promised.

The other bit of news? The TSA has admitted that it has simply put a bunch of these machines in storage -- 91 machines, worth $14 million -- because of related privacy concerns.

While it's a good thing that privacy violating machines aren't being used, it raises serious questions about why they were purchased and put into use in the first place -- and done so without ever taking comment from the public, as is required under law. Perhaps if they had actually done that, they would have avoided wasting so much taxpayer money on machines that violate everyone's privacy.

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