Pat or Scan?
Thank you to my good friend who sent this in an e-mail this morning. I had no idea the new scanners could see in such intimate detail. Makes me stop and think – would I prefer a pat down (shudder) or an invasive scan?
NEW YORK (AFP) – Security scanners which can see through passengers’ clothing and reveal details of their body underneath are being installed in 10 US airports, the US Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.
A random selection of travellers getting ready to board airplanes in Washington, New York’s Kennedy, Los Angeles and other key hubs will be shut in the glass booths while a three-dimensional image is made of their body beneath their clothes.
The booths close around the passenger and emit “millimeter waves” that go through cloth to identify metal, plastics, ceramics, chemical materials and explosives, according to the TSA.
While it allows the security screeners — looking at the images in a separate room — to clearly see the passenger’s sexual organs as well as other details of their bodies, the passenger’s face is blurred, TSA said in a statement on its website.
The scan only takes seconds and is to replace the physical pat-downs of people that is currently widespread in airports.
TSA began introducing the body scanners in airports in April, first in the Phoenix, Arizona terminal.
The installation is picking up this month, with machines in place or planned for airports in Washington (Reagan National and Baltimore-Washington International), Dallas, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Miami and Detroit.)
But the new machines have provoked worries among passengers and rights activists.
“People have no idea how graphic the images are,” Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program at the American Civil Liberties Union, told AFP.
The ACLU said in a statement that passengers expecting privacy underneath their clothing “should not be required to display highly personal details of their bodies such as evidence of mastectomies, colostomy appliances, penile implants, catheter tubes and the size of their breasts or genitals as a pre-requisite to boarding a plane.”
Besides masking their faces, the TSA says on its website, the images made “will not be printed stored or transmitted.”
“Once the transportation security officer has viewed the image and resolved anomalies, the image is erased from the screen permanently. The officer is unable to print, export, store or transmit the image.”
Lara Uselding, a TSA spokeswoman, added that passengers are not obliged to accept the new machines.
“The passengers can choose between the body imaging and the pat-down,” she told AFP.
TSA foresees 30 of the machines installed across the country by the end of 2008. In Europe, Amsterdam’s Schipol airport is already using the scanners.
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I was scanned with the new machime last time I travelled through Amsterdam.
Television is so much grafic that what a scan can be.
I, myself, find the patting and probing more intrusive.
Ok, so they cant save or print the images, but I would hate to walk out to a bunch of giggling security guards!
Coeurcountry – I have not yet had the pleasure! The idea kind of creeps me out. I imagine that after the first 100 passengers or so, all the bodies start to look pretty much the same.
Iraggregator – Me too. But usually I am so busy repacking computer, putting shoes back on, grabbing that plastic bag with all my liquids and stuff that I wouldn’t be paying a lot of attention.
This is beyond disturbing. Even Superman refrained from using his Kryptonian vision to indulge in private peep shows. If I wanted to show that much ‘skin’ to perfect strangers, I would dress more a la starlet-pre-rehab and less a la moi (or maybe make a run for the nearest nudist beach).
Personally, I think I’d rather have the awkwardness of a pat-down than the “sheer” mortification of a stint in the naked-booth. At least with a pat-down, I can just imagine that I’m riding a rush-hour crowded Parisian subway car…
I don’t know which scares me more – the thought of a terrorist taking my plane down or the idea of snickering 8-dollar-an-hour security guards getting a good look at my unerneath-clothes-junk. And yes, I know how shallow and vain that sounds, but still. No looky, no touchy!
I think I’ll just stay home.
Tough choice — if not for my absolute love of travelling. Ergh.
Wooh technology really evolving but personally I still prefer with a pat-down.
You know, C, I think I agree with you.
LLOOLLL Bejewell – yeh, those snickers – but do they have the time? Consider those security lines!
Ted – I am guessing it won’t hold you back.
Mchilly – Yeh, I think so, too.
pat down, definitely.