You had best get ready for a digital strip-search every time you want to fly anywhere! While some of you might not mind being seen nude in the pursuit of greater safety, others think it’s an infringement on the last shreds of their personal dignity.
Either way the backscatter X-ray is here to stay. It has been put in place at the Phoenix airport to screen air passengers for weapons.Though at phoenix passengers can choose an X-ray scan or a pat-down search. It is strictly voluntary.
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration will test the machine in Phoenix for 60-90 days before deploying machines in Los Angeles and New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport for additional testing by the end of the year.
That’s a long time to screen a whole lot of naked bodies. Though TSA officials claim that they had worked with industry specialists to blur any images of body parts generated by the scan, and likened the resulting picture to a “chalk outline” of a person.
Airline passengers who choose to use the new machines stand in front of it with their arms in the air. A tiny laser beam scans the passenger from head to toe. X-rays penetrate clothing, but bounce off the traveler’s body. This generates a silhouette-like image.
However, backscatter X-rays have been highly controversial. Earlier versions were explicitly revealing, capturing pictures in which people appeared nearly naked.
Source: Reuters
