The USA's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) paid IBM $47 400 (over R710 000) to develop an app that randomly tells users to go left or right.
Documents obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act by US ICT developer Kevin Burke indicate that the TSA paid the IT giant $336 413 for app development, of which $47 400 was used to develop the randomisation app.
The software is essentially a random number generator which Burke says "a beginner [developer] could build in a day".
The app, used on tablets operated by TSA staff, was implemented as part of TSA's now-discontinued Managed Inclusion programme, employed in about 150 US airports, which allowed pre-approved, "low risk" travellers to move through the security check process faster and more easily. The app would randomly assign passengers to right of left PreCheck lines, purportedly to make it more difficult for terrorists to predict their pathway through the airport, as well as to reduce racial profiling in random security checks.
But the TSA announced in June 2015 that it would be phasing out the programme, after a convicted felon and former member of a domestic terrorist group successfully passed through the "PreCheck" system.
A YouTube video (above) demonstrates the "randomiser" in action, while revealing its effectiveness to be questionable.
Mashable speculates that the app's high development price may have included the tablets themselves.
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