TSA assholes can force you through the EZPorn Oven

[Nonny]

Title mine.  I'm feeling pretty fucking enraged right now. 

www.usatoday.com/story/travel/2015/12/23/tsa-can-now-make-you-go-through-body-scanner/77802418/

TSA can now require full-body scans, trumping pat-down option

Bart Jansen, USA TODAY 3:56 p.m. EST December 23, 2015

Just in time for the holidays, the Transportation Security Administration changed the rules for its full-body scanners to find out who’s naughty or nice at airport checkpoints.

The change is aimed at safeguarding airline security at a time of heightened tensions over terrorism. But legal and security experts complain that TSA rules are ambiguous and that changes come without the opportunity for public comment.

TSA announced Friday it would require full-body scans for some travelers rather than allowing everyone the option of a pat-down search instead. The scanners can detect non-metallic weapons hidden beneath clothing, such as the plastic explosives hidden in the underwear of a man who attempted to detonate a bomb about a flight to Detroit on Christmas Day in 2009.

Generally, passengers undergoing screening will still have the option to decline a (full-body) screening in favor of physical screening,” said Bruce Anderson, a TSA spokesman. “However, some passengers will be required to undergo (full-body) screening if warranted by security considerations in order to safeguard transportation security.”

"This will occur in a very limited number of circumstances where enhanced screening is required," Anderson added. "The vast majority of passengers will not be affected."

The change is controversial.

“We’re in bizarro-world with TSA,” said Marc Scribner, a research fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute.

The institute has sued TSA in federal court to force the agency to go through a formal rulemaking procedure to continue to use the body scanners, which went into service in 2007. Such a process would allow the public to comment on how and when the machines are used. A July court filing said more than 740 scanners are installed in 160 airports.

TSA received more than 5,500 comments when it proposed a rule in 2013 dealing with the scanners, but TSA never completed that process. As part of the legal case, TSA is now scheduled to publish a final rule in March.

Scribner said the change Friday is another example of TSA ignoring the law governing how federal agencies should adopt regulations, and leaves travelers uncertain about their rights under the rules.

“It wasn’t clear before what the policy was. Now it’s even less clear,” Scribner said. “I don’t know if they could have done anything worse.”

Fred Cate, an Indiana University law professor, said changing a policy that travelers already don’t understand will lead to greater confusion. And granting TSA officers greater discretion at checkpoints is an invitation to more complaints about how travelers are chosen for pat-downs, he said.

“Anything that adds more complexity likely weakens security,” Cate said. “Almost anywhere else in government or industry, if you don’t do things by the rules, it’s something people can complain about. Here if you don’t do something by the rules, they just say you don’t know what the rules are or we can’t tell you.”

George McHendry, an assistant professor of communications at Creighton University, questioned who would be chosen for the full-body scans. The change could bring TSA more criticism from disabled or transgender travelers who may prefer pat-downs to resolve security concerns and avoid delays, he said.

“The pat-down becomes a way for them to get you through security with minimal resistance,” McHendry said. “It’s been a pretty good pressure valve for that.”

TSA began deploying full-body scanners in order to identify objects hidden under layers of clothing.

The machines came in two versions. One machine, known as the backscatter scanner, had raised concerns about radiation exposure. It's use was ultimately discontinued because it produced near-naked images of travelers. The remaining version produces a block-drawing of the traveler with a box marking the area where it detected an unusual object.

A National Academies of Sciences study in September found that the backscatter machines in use from 2008 through 2013 didn’t overexpose travelers to radiation. Travelers were exposed to one-tenth the radiation limit set by the American National Standards Institute and Health Physics Society, according to the study.

[fuckyourcouch]

"Some passengers"

So, brown ones? This is fucking ridiculous.

[ttt]

Oh you mean the machines that DONT WORK???

[Nonny]

Dec 23, 2015 20:53:39 GMT -5 @mx said:

If you guys hear I'm in jail this will be the proximate cause.

If you go to jail for this I will absolutely donate to a GoFundMe for your bail and/or other legal expenses.

[secretlyevil]

Nope, no profiling here, none at all.

[Deleted]

I always forewarn my mom that, if we're flying to see her, I may get jailed due to a TSA run-in.

[suzyp]

Dec 23, 2015 20:53:39 GMT -5 @mx said:

If you guys hear I'm in jail this will be the proximate cause.

I will be next to you. I'm fucking livid about this. Luckily I flew on Friday and Monday and was fine. Actually hit it when they were recalibrating the scanner so I got the regular old metal detector on Friday. 

[jln]

Well this is infuriating.

Just don't forget your Fourth Amendment underwear. bigthink.com/design-for-good/tsa-proof-4th-amendment-underwear

[YeahSure]

FTS

[taratru]

Only some, huh? I bet I know what those some will have in common.

[ESF]

Dec 23, 2015 20:53:39 GMT -5 @mx said:

If you guys hear I'm in jail this will be the proximate cause.

MY THOUGHTS EXACTLY

[Deleted]

I am the lone dissenter who prefers the scanners. I don't care if someone sees a scan and we never make eye contact. OTOH, I hate it when strangers touch me. Unless you are a medical professional or performing CPR, please give me my bubble.

However, not everyone is like me and the idea that "some people" will be required to go through the scanner is disgusting. Everyone should get options.

[underwaterrhymes]

I have never minded the scanners (except when I was pregnant and went the route of metal detectors and a pat down, if necessary).

I, however, have a HUGE problem with making it arbitrarily mandatory. As if racism and xenophobia weren't major problems already, this just legitimizes it even further.

[mrsukyankee]

Jesus. I'll have to let my brown husband know about this. He has to travel to the US for work regularly and we go for holiday at least every few years. Damn them.

[calmcosmo]

The arbitrary nature is troublesome. The rules need to be set.

That said, the science shows that the scanners are safe. The cosmic radiation you receive sitting on an airplane for hours is higher than what you get in the back scatter machine. And both are much lower than anything worth noting for health purposes. So the idea that "they are making me go into an oven" is not scientifically sound. It amazes me that someone would rather have a TSA agent hair and crotch search them by hand instead of standing in the scanner.

Make the rules the same for all. Preferably, rules that actually work in keeping passengers safe.

[StrawberryBlondie]

Dec 24, 2015 7:45:28 GMT -5 calmcosmo said:

The arbitrary nature is troublesome. The rules need to be set.

That said, the science shows that the scanners are safe. The cosmic radiation you receive sitting on an airplane for hours is higher than what you get in the back scatter machine. And both are much lower than anything worth noting for health purposes. So the idea that "they are making me go into an oven" is not scientifically sound. It amazes me that someone would rather have a TSA agent hair and crotch search them by hand instead of standing in the scanner.

Make the rules the same for all. Preferably, rules that actually work in keeping passengers safe.

Do you work for the scanner company or something?

[Nonny]

Dec 24, 2015 7:45:28 GMT -5 calmcosmo said:

The arbitrary nature is troublesome. The rules need to be set.

That said, the science shows that the scanners are safe. The cosmic radiation you receive sitting on an airplane for hours is higher than what you get in the back scatter machine. And both are much lower than anything worth noting for health purposes. So the idea that "they are making me go into an oven" is not scientifically sound. It amazes me that someone would rather have a TSA agent hair and crotch search them by hand instead of standing in the scanner.

Make the rules the same for all. Preferably, rules that actually work in keeping passengers safe.

We've been calling them the EZPorn Oven for years now, and I'm perfectly aware that they aren't actually putting us in an oven. 

With the current scanners my objections have little to do with the safety, and everything to do with the 4th Amendment violation of having a naked image of me being taken for the purposes of security theater.  These scanners do not in anyway making flying safer, and putting a cartoon filter of my naked image doesn't negate the fact that the government thinks it's acceptable to require a naked scan for me to be able to fly.  Having my naked image be recorded is so incredibly more invasive to me than having a stranger run their hands over my clothed body (I get spa treatments from strangers that are significantly more intimate than the 2-3 minutes it takes to get a pat down at the airport).

[sfy]

No way @ "some passengers." This is going to be horrendous.

Nonny, I have opted out and taken a pat down for every flight I've taken since that thread on MM. I've only taken 4 flights, but still. I'm done with the scanners, well, as much as I am permitted to be, moving forward, apparently.

[sunny]

What about children? We never have to go thru them because we travel with our kids and I am also a conscientious objecter who will demand a pat down anyway.