561.404.4350 [email protected]

Call it crowdsourcing, online rating or real-time reporting. The Web allows for immediate, detailed consumer commentary on products and services.  That feedback has extended to cell phones and reached the airline-security experience through the “Survey on the Spot” app for the iPhone.

On the Spot Systems in Newton, Mass., has launched the TSA Airport Security Screening Survey that gives people who tub their carry-ons, take off their shoes and sometimes get wanded to rate their experiences. This is not a rogue app; the Transportation Security Administration wants to know how it is doing. Survey on the Spot also allows travelers to add photos and comments to help the TSA improve the national security system, says On the Spot Systems in a press release.

Photos of suspected terrorists? Rants? Don’t look for them on a Web site. On the Spot generates proprietary information for clients, most of which appear to be fast-food and casual dining chains, based on our informal search on the company’s Web site. The TSA app is geo-based; launch it and it figures out which airport you’re trying to traverse to your plane. The commercial clients use zip codes to locate their nearest restaurant or coffee shop.

Ratings in the public sector are relatively rare when compared to the private sector and independent sites that span across the Web. One wonders whether there might one day be a survey for rating the cop who pulls you over for speeding, the judge who hears your case, the attorney who represents you, and the court clerk who takes your fine payment.