I’ve written previously about backscatter x-ray machines, where a person passing through a security checkpoint is ordered to stand in front of a device, and radiation is used to see what’s under their clothes.
The technology is now operational at the Phoenix Sky Harbor airport. This AP story reads as is the TSA is trying to find a balance between security and privacy here in the States:
During testing, the machine will be used only as a backup screening measure. Passengers who fail the standard screening with a metal detector will be able to choose between the new device or a pat-down search.
“It’s 100 percent voluntary, so if the passenger doesn’t feel comfortable with it, the passenger doesn’t have to go through it,” TSA spokesman Nico Melendez said.[...]
The security officer who works with the passenger going through the screening will never see the images the machine produces. The pictures will be viewed by another officer about 50 feet away who will not see the passenger, the TSA said.
The machine cannot store the images or transmit them and “once we’re done screening the passenger, the image is gone forever,” Melendez said.
There’s sample scans attached to the article which, admittedly, seem a somewhat less revealing than the sample images released when the technology made headlines several months ago.
Having said that, the privacy protections rely on a government agency doing what it has promised to do. I’m not sure how far I trust the government to keep its word. If it expands as a voluntary operation, I’ll probably opt for the pat-down.
Besides, as an ACLU spokesperson mentions, you shouldn’t have to be strip-searched, virtual or not, to get onto a plane.