tsa

This Day in Tech: Google vs. Facebook; HTC loses patent ruling

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Friday, July 15.

• The social network wars continue. Google is taking on Facebook and its using its philosophy of openness to convince users to stay. Facebook hasn't been making it easy for users to export their data. With the Google platform, users can take their data elsewhere with just a couple of clicks.

• The U.S. International Trade commission ruled that HTV violated two of Apple's patents. In other related Apple news, Apple's A6 chip is in … Read more

Appeals court: TSA must rethink airport body scans

The Transportation Security Agency violated federal law when installing controversial full-body scanners in U.S. airports without following proper procedures, a federal appeals court ruled today.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., rejected arguments from the Obama administration that the TSA was exempt from laws requiring federal agencies to first notify the public and seek comments.

"It is clear that by producing an image of the unclothed passenger, (a full-body) scanner intrudes upon his or her personal privacy in a way a magnetometer does not," wrote Judge Douglas Ginsburg for the three-judge panel. … Read more

Police: TSA worker put stolen iPad in his pants

Are you the type of airline passenger who, when your hand luggage goes through security, tries to peer all the way into the machine, just to check that nothing will be tampered with?

You may have good reason to do so, if a story from Florida holds up in court.

According to WSVN-TV, a Transportation Security Administration worker allegedly had a systematic scheme for removing passengers' electronics and selling them on Craigslist.

In one incident, Broward County Sheriff's Office says that Nelson Santiago, 30, allegedly removed an iPad from a passenger's suitcase and then, well, stuffed it down … Read more

Blogger Bob--TSA's Internet mouthpiece (Q&A)

The Transportation Security Administration appears to have pulled off an Internet first: hiring the U.S. government's most controversial spokesblogger.

All federal agencies have spokesmen. Some have blogs. But it's the pseudonymous Blogger Bob who, more than anyone else, has come to represent the online voice and personality of his employer--not always with entirely successful results.

Internet fact checkers have accused Blogger Bob of eliding relevant facts about disputes involving the TSA. A Forbes.com column noted that Blogger Bob had curbed critical comments (and then subsequently permitted them). Reason Magazine has dubbed Blogger Bob someone who's … Read more

New nanomaterial could detect, neutralize explosives

If a group of scientists can get their project off the ground, there's a chance U.S. air travelers may one day be able to bring aboard more liquids in their carry-on luggage again.

The team, led by Oklahoma State University chemistry professor Allen Apblett, has come up with what it says is a nanomaterial that can both detect and neutralize some dangerous explosives. If deployed in a practical manner at airports in the U.S. and elsewhere around the world, it could, in theory, make it possible once again for some people to bring more liquids with them … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1399: Waiting for Lady Killer (podcast)

Warning: today's show is slightly shorter than usual, thanks to our live coverage of Google's Honeycomb, Android Market, and Lady Killer event. But it's worth it: we break down the big announcements from Google, talk about the launch of The Daily, Egypt's restoration of Internet service, and the TSA planning to show slightly less junk than before. Thanks, guys. --Molly

Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (640x360) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS (640x360)… Read more

Professors: TSA scanners simple to dupe

Just when you thought it was safe to enter an airplane, along comes some professor to tell you that it may not be quite so.

For it seems that, despite the entrance of body scanners and their piercing gaze on every last element of your junk (reference embedded for those who missed it), these machines might not be foolproof.

According to Fox News, two professors at the University of California, San Francisco--Leon Kaufman and Joseph W. Carlson--have released a learned document that suggests it might be depressingly simple to fool a body scanner.

"It is very likely that a … Read more

TSA blog fights back against satire

There is tension in the air. Well, even before you manage to get into the air.

Stories have abounded concerning new screening procedures and their overly personal nature. Why, just the other day, a woman decided that the only way to maintain her dignity was to go through screening wearing only matching bra and panties. (I have embedded her here.)

And yet, as one might imagine in a land in which the enthusiasm for self-expression and the invention of the Internet merge to create a dynamic cocktail, some of the stories told are simply not true.

So the TSA has … Read more

TSA screening protester in skivvies delayed, misses flight

It seems that America's airports have become, in the words of San Francisco filmmaker John Maringouin, "YouTube City."

Ever since the TSA introduced body scanners into the most detailed parts of our lives, travelers have pulled out their cell phones in order to record incidents that seem to verge on the pointless, if not the slightly degrading.

Following the YouTube video of a little boy being strip searched (which has since been added to with a claim that the TSA might not have been entirely truthful about what happened), here is Dr. Tammy Banovac in her underwear.… Read more