Thanks to a Freedom of Information Act request, it has come to light that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) paid IBM $336,413.59 for mobile development services. That amount included $47,400 for an app that randomly pointed right or left. The app was used to direct travelers to security checkpoint lanes, and the random nature was designed to prevent terrorists from figuring out which lane they would be assigned. But that program has since been discontinued, so the TSA is no longer using its $47,400 app.
Adding fuel to the fire, a developer recently re-created the TSA app in just 10 minutes. The Next Web notes that if the developer had been paid by the TSA for his work, he would have been earning $282,000 per hour.
