Airport X-Ray Scanners: Mind Having Your Naked Body Photographed And Stored in a Federal Database?
Modesto Famous December 29, 2007



Stand by, air travelers, because the U.S. Homeland Security Department is preparing to install and test high-tech machines at airport checkpoints that will ''See Thru Clothing!''

Get ready for electronic portals known as backscatters, expected to be tested at a handful of airports this year, that use X-ray imaging technology to allow a screener to scan a body. And yes, the body image is detailed. Let's not be coy here, ladies and gentlemen: ''Well, you'll see basically everything,'' said Bill Scannell, a privacy advocate and technology consultant. ''It shows nipples. It shows the clear outline of genitals.''

The Homeland Security Department's justification for the electronic strip searches has a certain logic. In field test after field test, it found that federal airport screeners using metal-detecting magnetometers did a miserable job identifying weapons concealed in carry-on bags or on the bodies of undercover agents.

In a clumsy response late last year, the department instituted intrusive pat-downs at checkpoints after two planes in Russia blew up from nonmetallic explosives that had apparently been smuggled into the aircraft by female Chechen terrorists. But it reduced the pat-downs after passengers erupted in outrage at the groping last December.

Homeland Security has not identified the airports that will test backscatters. More than a dozen have been selected to test various new technologies.

One maker of backscatters is Rapiscan Security Products, a unit of OSI Systems Inc. ''Since the Russian plane tragedy, which is suspected due to suicide bombers, the interest has heightened for these needs, especially for the body scanner,'' Deepak Chopra, the chief executive of OSI Systems, recently told analysts.

Another story on Airport X-ray Scanners:

These images are of another type of X-ray technology proposed to be used in airports in which the machine will be able to see Inside your body! Creepy.



I have some good news and some bad news. The good news: Passing through airport security will soon be a little quicker and effective. The bad news: Unless you're an exhibitionist, you might object to the new backscatter x-ray machines now beginning to be used, which give your screener a naked image of your body. These images are nothing compared to how detailed the images really are. These are the photos that are toned down for the media to use for the general public. The Real images are so highly detailed that they can actually see the pores on your skin! If that isn't enough, every image that is taken of everyone who passes through these x-ray scanners will create a biometric digital image of your body and map it just as they do with digital biometric face scans. Your biometric "digital thumb print" of your body will then be entered into a federal database where it will be added to your record and stored permanently. Do you mind having your naked body photographed and digitally stored by the government?

Has this gone too far? Is giving up your privacy worth whatever security you are perceivably getting? You decide.



Source: Modesto Famous