Full Body Scanners Installed In 10 US Airports 454
Lapzilla brings word that airports around the US are beginning to use a new type of body-scanning machine which records pictures of travelers underneath their clothing. The process takes roughly 30 seconds, and the person viewing the pictures is located in a separate room. We've discussed similar scanners in the past. From USAToday:
"[Barry Steinhardt, head of the ACLU technology project] said passengers would be alarmed if they saw the image of their body. 'It all seems very clinical and non-threatening -- you go through this portal and don't have any idea what's at the other end,' he said. Passengers scanned in Baltimore said they did not know what the scanner did and were not told why they were directed into the booth. Magazine-sized signs are posted around the checkpoint explaining the scanners, but passengers said they did not notice them."
Re:Ewwww... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Might be a good thing (Score:5, Interesting)
Even worse: They want to see our children naked!
Please will someone (aside from the TSA and pedophiles) please think of the children!
Would the recorded images of people under 18 be considered child porn?
Constitutional law (Score:5, Interesting)
I would hope that this matter gets brought up in SCOTUS
Re:And this is one of the reasons why... (Score:4, Interesting)
Think about it. The new fees on checked luggage are just going to cause people to push the envelope of carry on bags to the point the boarding/unboarding process is unbearable. Add on to that the 3-1-1, you can't bring liquids with you at all if you can't check baggage and you're not allowed to carry them on. Now they also are going to be looking at basically naked pictures of you as you get on the plane, and, oh yeah, don't forget you are paying a lot of money for this poor treatment, and soon the sodas won't even be free.
No one in their right mind would fly at all under these circumstances, and that's exactly what they want.
Re:And this is one of the reasons why... (Score:3, Interesting)
Ocean liner. Fine meals, suites, good company, pools, ocean view, time to reflect, luxury in general. When you get where you're going, rent a private vehicle, presuming you're going significantly inshore. Possibly train travel; depends on the country. Trains can be luxurious and fine; or they can be just like aircraft. Research is worth doing before you travel.
When I compare going on an aircraft to an ocean liner, the aircraft comes off as an experience somewhat akin to a few hours in a hamster cage. With crowded, angry hamsters and mad scientists at the cage door.
Re:Constitutional law (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Geez, (Score:5, Interesting)
Just saying.
Re:Ewwww... (Score:5, Interesting)
I was in a bike accident a little ways back. I have enough surgical steel in me to beep many place, but it has taught me a couple of things. The first being that many airports obviously turn down the sensitivity during busy times. I've had detectors that I've gone through and set off, not go off. Now if I, with 62 screws, 5 plates, and two pins don't set it off then WTF does? I doubt it's because they remembered me six months later at some busy hub.
Still, you gave up your freedoms and privacy to be safe, right? I'd feel safer guarded by girl scouts at this point.
Re:Geez, (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Ron Paul wouldn't allow this sort of thing (Score:4, Interesting)
No one bitches and moans. No one. Americans, at best, grumble and murmur under their breath.
In a nation infamous for its loud and litigious protesters, the silence, the absolute and utter _silence_ on this issue is screaming. Where are the protestors? Where are the acronymed activists groups? Where are the calls to senators and paid for TV ads against these intrusions? Where are the B-list celebrity messages? Where are the class action lawsuits?
Jesus. Even the ambulance chasers have been battered into submission. You're not going to be able to fix this for decades.
Re:The most telling... (Score:3, Interesting)
"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
"Wasn't the whole mantra several years back one of "We musn't change our way of life, or THEY will have won."?"
Yeah, I remember hearing that often in all of the press conferences, speeches, etc. right after the attacks.
As a society here, we have lost our balls and our backbone.
Re:Geez, (Score:3, Interesting)
These body-scanning machines have a very high cost and as long as checked luggage is not 100% screened, nor is service access to the airplane 100% screened (hell, its barely controlled at all as is) then these machines produce an ineffective increase in security. This isn't layered security, this a finger in a dike where the dike has already been completely washed away.
Re:um, radiation (Score:3, Interesting)
Efficient emission and detection of Submillimeter radiation has not been practical for very long, which may be why you haven't heard of it. It's most often refered to as Terahertz Radiation [wikipedia.org].
If you want stories of people being purposefully mislead, they outright lie about these things in Heathrow airport, London.
The signs tell people that the machine uses a "very low dose of x-ray radiation". I was picked for a random security check, and given the choice of the scanner or a manual search. The manual thing sounded kind of scary, so I went for the scanner, in the full knowledge that it involves someone looking at my naked body.
Now, because it sounds a bit frightening and was very new then, they were obviously instructed to reassure people about it, so when I insisted on seeing the images, they let me (they showed me the shot from behind, presumably in the hope i wouldn't realise they'd obviously looked at my cock). It was very obviously a Terrahertz-band scanner, but the staff and all the signs stated it was an x-ray machine, because everyone is used to those.
Guess not everyone is a physics student who knows that X-rays are more dangerous than T-rays! I wouldn't have gone in the machine if I hadn't been totally sure that the ionising radiation was a lie.
Re:Ewwww... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Fourth amendment?? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Fourth amendment?? (Score:3, Interesting)
I suppose they would say that even that is a choice and you 'willingly' submitted when in reality you did no such thing. You did it because if you didn't you'd get fired.. and if you don't submit they won't let you fly. I say, it is a choice of no choice.
Furthermore, if your argument is correct, then at best the only Constitutionally protected mode of movement is walking. So as long as you are free to walk from Tennessee to Washington state then your rights are just fine. Is that what you're saying?
Re:Geez, (Score:3, Interesting)
As for airport security... my company has had three laptops stolen out of checked baggage in the last year because people ignored the company policy of carrying them on. If they can't keep the airport baggage handlers straight (who have FAR more access to the plane than anyone riding as a passenger), why should we trust that any of their other "improvements" are worthwhile?