Gather ’round for the time-honored American tradition of pretending to be outraged by something. (If we’re to believe that outlet of faux populist outrage, the Drudge Report.) It’s one of those airport security body scanning devices, this time going on trial at the Salt Lake City airport. The left two images show a woman, while the right two are a man.
My question is, are any of you out there actually offended by this? It’s not a new device, but it was deployed for the first time at the luxurious Salt Lake City airport for the first time this month, as this local news report explains. Its whole purpose, if you haven’t already guessed, is to look for contraband underneath your clothes. Of course, there’s always the “oh my God my privacy” concerns, but the TSA has gone out of its way to ensure that you have nothing to fear. For one, your face is blurred out; no one will know who you are. Second, the TSA guy with you at the booth isn’t the guy who will see the 3D scan; nope, someone in a room, behind closed doors, gets to see the scan. And, lastly, you have to volunteer to be scanned. The TSA is using the machine as part of a pilot program, and it’s not guaranteed that it will make its way to your local airport.
And yes, if using this machine would make going through that airport security line any faster I’d use it, in a heartbeat.
If doing this meant that I could go through the line quicker, I’d be all for it. However, knowing how the government does things, I have a feeling this doesn’t make getting through these lines any quicker.
mmm…. scanning TSA teenager pornography…. mmmmm
True… if it does get us thru security faster… but the lines are the true problem, and this thing might make things worse!
It’s hilarious! Especially if the other people waiting in line are able to view the monitors..!
I think it should be like at disney land where you can pay $60 for a snapshot at the end.
Seriously…How is this going to make any difference? There is nothing this machine will so that isn’t already being done. How many news stories have you heard lately of passengers hijiacking a plane with a ceramic knife? Don’t you think by know that all the other passengers have learned what to do with a would-be knife hijacker, thanks to Flight 93? Government control, waste and abuse all in the name safety. We’re never going to learn. Next I bet some people would willingly up their freedom for safety…wait that’s already happening.
yes i am outraged by this. sure its voluntary and just a trial. but its just one more ting to scare us. i for one would rather live in a unsafe world with my freedom than give away all my rights for the sheep that are afraid to protect them self’s.
It looks like a serious vector during flu season. Is the thing sanitized between subjects being screened? I wouldn’t want press my arms, hands, and face into the sames spot as 500 other passengers without at least giving it a disinfectant wipe down in between uses.
You have less to fear from terrorists than by whatever bug you’ll be exposing yourself to from other travelers bringing in exotic germs from all around the world.
Also, the idea of a virtual strip search is offensive, too. I would avoid any airport using it.
@Ency – Move to Mogadishu.
For the rest of us, I saw this machine in action at BWI about a year ago. They asked my girlfriend if she would be OK with being scanned, and she didn’t care, so she went for it. As the article states, the machine doesn’t have a screen at the checkpoint, just a light that turns red or green for the operator. So there’s someone in a room somewhere doing the actual scan. And I assume there’s a man scanning the males, and a woman scanning the females, just like when they do the thing with the wand.
And I do see a potential way this can speed up the line. Ever seen the delay at rush hour as every moron suddenly acts like they didn’t know you have to take off all their metal objects blah blah blah? If it means you can just drop your bag on the conveyor and walk through, then scan me all you want.
But it doesn’t mean you just drop your bag and go. When I went through it in SLC last week on a business trip, not only did I have to take off all my metal objects, I also had to take out my wallet and any other papers that might have been in my pockets.
Additionally, I wasn’t asked if I wanted to do it; I was told to go through it. Coming back, my coworkers were forced through it in Tulsa.
Nor is it faster. During the time it took for me to go through the scanner, two families with multiple children each went through the regular line. The first family even has shoes on their three kids before I was through.
I for one am in support of this due to my belief that everyone in the world should see my penis.
Drudge is an asshat phony
Give it up for Ency – a sound voice among cowards and sheep. Did you people sleep through history, how much are you willing to give up for the illusion of “security.” I am ashamed of what we are becoming as a nation and a people.
I think it will be long forgotten as a news story and well integrated by 2010. My wonder is to the guy sitting there watching mercury looking people doing spins on his pc… relaying the “stats” back to the active officer.
man behind PC: woman, clear.
man at machine: (thanks) – “ok ma’am you’re good to go”
man behind PC: man, clear.
man at machine: (thanks) – “ok sir you’re clear sorry for the delay”
man behind PC: man, clear.
man at machine: (thanks) – “ok sir thanks for your co-operation”
man behind PC: SHEMALE! WTF!!, oh and yeah she.. umm he… is umm clear.
man at machine: (WAT!! oh dude no way i never would have picked it!) – “ok umm miss you are ok you aren’t hiding anything.. i mean.. you checked out fine,, i mean on the scan thing.. i didn’t mean i was checking you out.. ok NEXT!! :S”
Funny how people are willing to give their rights up for a false sense of security, funny as Nazi Germany.
what frightens me about this technology is how many comments i’ve seen on various sites and articles are from people who *don’t* see this is a problem or a violation of privacy or rights. we have gotten to this point where we are willing to give up even our right to CLOTHING in order to travel on an airplane. to me, the idea that someone sits in a room somewhere looking at these nude scans day in and day out — someone i can’t see, who could be doing any number of things including pointing and laughing and pulling all the guys in to check out my anatomy — that’s creepy. at least when they x-ray my bags i can see the person who’s doing it, and i can have a conversation with them about what’s in there, open the bag, interact.
and i haven’t seen anyone asking about what happens when a kid goes through the scanner. is it suddenly okay for some guy making minimum wage to look at naked children, in the name of national security? and if we aren’t scanning everyone, regardless of age, why bother to do the scans at all? what prevents the bad guys from using their kids to carry the bombs?
i have heard a few people asking, “who’s going to stop flying just because of this technology? no one, right?” wrong. if this becomes mandatory in major airports, i’m going to be taking a lot of lovely trips by train instead.
lol your rant lacks power!
enjoy your train rides.. you won’t need to fear scans (yet) but that dead cow on the tracks will be more painful to you then some guy seen your little doodle in 3d! if you survive blame al qaeda for putting the cow there.. you will feel better.
It was pure physical and psychological rape. There was only a casual “oh, it’s only a scan” comment by TSA but the knowledge that you were undergoing a full body check by whoever was looking. The man on the other side had an ear piece in and was getting an ear full. My wife was being patted down and he turned to the the lady who was doing this in full view of everyone and saied, “No, they’re saying it’s under her left arm up close to her chest you’re suppose to be checking.”
We both lost sleep over this. If I could sue the government I would.
TW, I had similar experience like you! I have already left my comment here. I totally understand your anger over this, both my wife and I lost sleep over this as well, and still affected us till this day, we felt so violated! We are law abiding citizen, paying high taxes, to be treated by some lowlife like a criminal, this has to stop!
“And, lastly, you have to volunteer to be scanned”
BULLSHIT! I travel through Atlanta all the time. Last time I flew (a couple of weeks ago), I was “selected” by a lazy TSA dope for scanning in this stupid box. I was not given an option.
What about the health concerns of being shot with whatever rays that are being used to get the images? Doctors tell you that you have absolutely nothing to worry about with x-rays, but then they go and hide in a protected room when they scan patients. Offended by this? No. But I do wonder what kind of effect a machine like this would have on frequent travelers. It’s not like flying is quite hard on one’s health enough already…
ok if you paid attention and done some research dipstick you would know that this particular style of scan is millimeter wave, meaning a sonic wave is passed over your body, reflected and recieved to creat such image. people have no problem listening to music all day in there cars but all of a sudden OMG its at a level i cant hear must be bad for me! dipstick
The irony here is no one seems to be the least bit concerned about REAL body searches, but this freaks’em out. lol
I think the opportunity is rife with potential abuse but with a few simple place guards beyond the existing controls it would be superbly easy.
1) No data/image saves ever. Anything odd would generate the afore mentioned physical search. Duh!
2) The shading used to blur faces could easily be used to blur other “parts” unless something “unusual” was detected. Lets face it people try to sneak stuff thru this way constantly.
3) Keep it voluntary and make it sort of an ‘express line’ option. Ogle all you want, I just want to get thru to my flight already!
I am actually offended by this.
Dear Violated ATl Traveler,
I am so sorry for what happened to you.
I just left a comment today on what happened to my wife during our overseas trip last month. We both felt so violated by the TSA male staff. I believe they work like a pack of wolf to target young and attractive women. Have you ever think of their qualification? Both the TSA males staff looks like a baggage handlers, they are not like police or army that went thru straitened professional training with good mental health, I wonder if they even have high school degree!
I was furious when I came back and learned about all the facts about body scanning, I wrote a complaint letter to a congressman here and I hope they can put a stop to this ridiculus procedure, or at least put a BIG sign to let traveler know that this is an option to pat down search!
Yesterday, a Congressman in Utah refuse to go thru the full body scanner and was make headlines, you can google search the news. I urged people that has bad experieces like ours to stand up for our right, and put a STOP to this!
Take care and have a great weekend!
I am a female who recently traveled through the Atlanta airport and even though I did not set off the metal detector, a male screener instructed me to step in the pro scan machine for further screening. It wasn’t until after I had gone through that I realized that I may have just experienced an involuntary strip search. I went back to ask him if the machine I just went through allowed them to see through my clothing and he said “no, it was just an additional scan for weapons.” After further research, I realize it was a flat out lie he told me. If we can’t trust them to be honest in our face, how can we be assured that the individuals who are viewing our images are using the same integrity we expect. Had I known what “further screening” was I would have chosen a patdown by a female screener to the unknown body photo image being taken. With a patdown, at least I know who is doing it and no digital image is left behind. I felt like my privacy was completely violated and I am considering further action since he did not give me a choice and lied.
proscan works like a sampling device no image is taken it “sniffs” for things you shouldnt have. the big E word
Dear Violated ATl Traveler,
I am so sorry for what happened to you.
I just left a comment today on what happened to my wife during our overseas trip last month. We both felt so violated by the TSA male staff. I believe they work like a pack of wolf to target young and attractive women. Have you ever think of their qualification? Both the TSA males staff looks like a baggage handlers, they are not like police or army that went thru straitened professional training with good mental health, I wonder if they even have high school degree!
I was furious when I came back and learned about all the facts about body scanning, I wrote a complaint letter to a congressman here and I hope they can put a stop to this ridiculus procedure, or at least put a BIG sign to let traveler know that this is an option to pat down search!
Yesterday, a Congressman in Utah refuse to go thru the full body scanner and was make headlines, you can google search the news. I urged people that has bad experieces like ours to stand up for our right, and put a STOP to this!
Take care and have a great weekend!
Personally, I’d be worried for transpeople, if this ever became mandatory. Of course, they’d be perfectly safe using this machine in any developed country with a decent human rights record. I’d be more worried about countries where transsexual people are still considered disgusting, sick, sinners, etc. While it definitely goes against any laws protecting people based on gender identity, I doubt that that would be any comfort to a transwoman being detained and missing her flight simply because her scan revealed a penis.
My wife was asked to step into the machine, both TSA staff (both males) never offered her any options, but to ask her to step into the machine. I was not selected as well as an old lady behind us that beep couple of times after walking thru the security check point few times. When my wife walked thru the security check point, the machine wasn’t even beeping. I wish I learned about this body scanner sooner, I just realized this after I came back from our vacation, both my wife and I felt so violated. Though the article that I read mentioned that the images will be seen in other location by other TSA staff, I saw the guy that scan my wife walked to an unknown location right after he scan her, I am sure he went and check out her images with his buddy! Just make me sick to think about this. Imagine this happened to your wife, daugther or love one, this has to be STOPPED!
The TSA male agents choose young and attractive women as their prime target for bodyscan. I observed this when I was at the security check point, it was so obvious that it just blow my mind away! Guess they got a kick out of sharing beautiful young women images among themselves, they worked as a team like a pack of wolf, Angry Traveler was right about this!
The law should amend to such: male for male, female for female, jusy like pat down. Or, TSA should raise their hiring standard for this dignify job, at least hire someone who has a high school degree!
The people who see this as a problem are the fat ones. Additionally, they have no lives and nothing else to bitch about. Hehe
HAHAHAH oh my lord my wife and I felt so violated by this. Try being raped or maybe being violated by the terrorists of 911; which will never happen again thanks to this new technology.