Amid concerns from airline passengers of allowing TSA workers to see what they look like naked, the agency has finally relented and will remove the controversial full-body scanner machines. The government had previously tasked manufacturer Rapiscan to come up with new software that presented less invasive images, and the company failed to meet the deadline to do so.
This voids a contract the company had with the government, after they had made and installed 174 of the machines at airports around the country, including all three major Bay Area airports SFO, Oakland, and San Jose. SFO says they have already removed the machines, and Oakland and San Jose have committed to removing them by June.
The scanners were installed here in 2010, causing immediate concerns about the images they produced of people naughty bits. There was some hubbub then in November 2012 when House Republican Mike Rogers accused Rapiscan of faking tests of the machines to show how they protected peoples' privacy, leading to the machines' temporary removal at airports in New York, L.A., Chicago and elsewhere. The decision to remove the scanners for good, lawmakers say, was not related to this probe about the faked tests.
Update: SFO and other airports actually employ a different brand of full-body scanners with less "nude" imaging which will remain. [Hat tip: Mr. Eric]
Previously: TSA Employees Will Soon Be Able To See Your Naughty Bits
