See this image on the right? Well, its the same kind of image the TSA screening staff were hoping to see of everyone passing through the airport (hopefully you were not planning on carrying a gun).
The plan ran into some opposition, and that has actually resulted in the house passing a bill limiting how they can use these full body scanners.
The plan was to use the scanners as the primary screening method at every airport. Essentially, the TSA said that the scanners would be far more efficient than the current metal detectors, and tried to justify their usage by attempting to convince us that the images would not be stored, and that screening staff would be moved into a separate room.
Still, the whole idea did not sit well with Rep. Jason Caffetz who got the idea to a vote (of course, it involved attaching the bill to another bill to get it to pass). But the result is there – 310 votes for, 118 against.
This is surely going to be a disappointment for the TSA, but probably not as big as it is for the companies that were lining up to produce the thousands of machines that would have been needed to “keep us safe”.
The bill now moves to the Senate, where it still runs the risk of being killed. The whole body scanners won’t completely disappear, they will still be used as an optional system in secondary screenings, but if all works out, you won’t have to worry about some pervert in a cubicle watching your kids naked on his or her monitor.