**TSA GOLD+ LAUNCHES ‘PRIVACY BOOST’ OPTION — AT $1,000 a YEAR, SKIP the SCANNER, KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON.**

TSA GOLD+ LAUNCHES ‘PRIVACY BOOST’ OPTION — AT $1,000 A YEAR, SKIP THE SCANNER, KEEP YOUR CLOTHES ON.

In what critics are calling the final nail in the coffin of equal security, the TSA has quietly rolled out TSA Gold+, a “luxury compliance tier” that allows members to bypass all body scanners and physical pat-downs in exchange for a $1,000 annual fee and a biometric iris scan.

“This isn’t about safety,” says ethics professor Dr. Helen Marsh. “This is about creating a two-tier society where your wallet determines your privacy. We’ve just told every cash-strapped family that their bodies are public property — unless they can pay to hide them.”

Civil liberties groups are already dubbing it “The Velvet Checkpoint,” warning that the program effectively creates a “pay-for-privacy” system that shreds the Fourth Amendment’s promise of equal protection.

The TSA defends the move, saying Gold+ members undergo “continuous, non-intrusive behavioral monitoring” instead — and that the revenue will fund free PreCheck for low-income travelers.

But critics aren’t buying it. “This isn’t a security upgrade,” Marsh adds. “It’s a moral surrender packaged as a luxury upgrade.”

Has the airport become a VIP lounge for the few, and a glass box for the rest? The answer, for $1,000, is apparently no.