tsa

TSA, bored of seeing you naked, removing airport body scanners

You do realize that those nice people in Transport Security Administration uniforms have been examining your naked body, don't you?

You do realize that scanning machines arrived so swiftly in U.S. airports that there wasn't time to write software to preserve what remains of your modesty -- as you hold your hands up in surrender, just so that you can fly to Seattle?

Ah, you didn't.

Well, I bring news of a cover-up.

No, not that sort of cover-up. The TSA has decided that it's had enough of staring at your denuded selves -- perhaps … Read more

Did the TSA gank your missing iPad?

If you've ever had an iPad or laptop go missing from the airport, it may have ended up in the home of a TSA officer. ABC News caught one security officer red-handed with a stolen iPad using the "find my iPad" feature on iOS after it disappeared from the Orlando, Fla., airport.

ABC News staff was actually able to watch as the iPad moved away from the airport to the home of officer Andy Ramirez 30 miles away. Fifteen days later a camera crew showed up at Ramirez's house to confront him and attempt to reclaim the iPad. … Read more

Friday Poll: Do you choose the TSA body scanner option?

The glamor days of great meals on airplanes, no luggage limits, and easy boarding at airports are long gone. Those Pan Am dreams have disappeared into a maze of airline money-saving efforts and increasingly personal TSA security checks.

Ever since the TSA rolled out its revealing body scanners, we've been in the midst of a contentious privacy versus security debate. … Read more

Google Wallet: Pick a card, any card

Some big stories in Thursday's tech highlights, but stick around for the Olympic LOLs:

Google Wallet now lets users pay with any major credit or debit card. But you still have to have one of the few Sprint devices with NFC to use the service. That's because Verzion, AT&T and T-Mobile rather have you wait for the competing service they invested in, called Isis. But don't hold your breath waiting for Isis.

The Transportation Security Administration has been ordered to address comments and concerns from the public about its airport body scanners. Wired has reported … Read more

Court to TSA: Hey, what about your nude scanners?

I've been flying a lot lately and it's become harder to find security lines that don't have nude body scanners.

They seem to be proliferating like Zuckerbergs at Google.

Worse, they become ever more spectacularly demeaning, as people take up a submissive pose -- like bending over at the proctologist's -- and hope it will be over quickly.

One assumes that all the powers that were, be, and are were happy with these things.

It appears not. For the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is grousing that the TSA … Read more

TSA wants to buy $3 million worth of Macs and iDevices

The Transportation Security administration wants to spend up to $3 million on 1,000 Apple computers and 1,000 Apple handheld devices over the next three years to support its counter-terriorsim efforts.

The agency filed contract documents (see below), as noted by Nextgov, to explain why it would only pursue contracts with Apple instead of inviting other manufactures to bid. The devices would be used to boost a "widening secure mobile computing pilot" program specifically calling for the use of iOS, the Apple operating system.

The document describes several uses for the products -- which also includes AppleTV, … Read more

Techie gets naked to protest TSA

I am generally in favor of nudity as a form of self-expression.

I am not sure, though, how often it has been successful when that self-expression involves protest.

Portland, Ore., resident John Brennan, however, who reportedly works in tech with a major Silicon Valley company, got to Portland International Airport and decided to bare his soul. And a little more. For he dropped everything in order to get the TSA operatives to drop, some said, their harassment of his being. His explanation, though, proved a little different.

I am grateful, in a way, to the Associated Press for revealing some … Read more

TSA asks congressional panel to uninvite critic Bruce Schneier

Bruce Schneier, a vocal critic of security measures used by the Transportation Security Administration, was asked to testify before Congress about TSA's security screening initiatives but then was "formally uninvited" after the agency complained.

"On Friday, at the request of the TSA, I was removed from the witness list," Schneier wrote on his blog. "The excuse was that I am involved in a lawsuit against the TSA, trying to get them to suspend their full-body scanner program. But it's pretty clear that the TSA is afraid of public testimony on the topic, and … Read more

Are TSA's body scanners easy to fool?

The Transport Security Administration's body scanners have enjoyed a level of controversy similar to that of Rush Limbaugh.

Though they've never called women names, the machines have led females to strip to their bra and panties in protest.

Now, Jonathan Corbett--who was the first to sue the TSA over its invasive machines--claims that the body scanners can be easily duped.

His explanation seems quite simple: if you strap your evil-doing object to your side, rather than to your front or back, the scanners provide no visual contrast with the background and therefore won't spot the object.

On his blog, … Read more