Passengers traveling to and from the US can rest assured their "privates" will remain private after the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced it would be replacing controversial x-ray body scanners with less invasive machinery at several major airports.

New millimetre-wave Advanced Imagining Technology (AIT) machines at Los Angeles, Boston Logan, Chicago O'Hare, Charlotte Douglas, Orlando, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy airports will see the "naked" scanners phased out over the coming months, the Huffington Post reported.

According to a TSA spokesperson, the new machines perform the same function as the body scanners but screen a person in as little as ten seconds as well as pose less radiation concerns.

Additionally, the new AIT devices do not map a person’s body in as much as detail, instead highlighting possible threats underneath clothing with an orange square.

“What comes up is a computer-generated image that’s the same for everyone — kind of like an outline of a person," the spokesperson said.

"If you forgot to remove your cell phone from your pocket, it shows up as a yellow box around that area.

“The officer knows where to search, and you’ll be able to see why he’s targeting that area."