The new millimeter wave scanners recently installed in New York and Los Angeles airports allow security screeners to virtually strip search travelers for concealed weapons and drugs. However, these body scanners are an infringement on the American people’s right to privacy.
The machines are about the size of a revolving door, and they use electromagnetic waves to create a computerized picture of a passenger’s entire body.
In fact, these black-and-white, three-dimensional images reveal a person’s nude body.
Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Technology and Liberty Project, said, “The images that I’ve seen are quite revealing. Steinhardt indicated the images are more vivid than the Transportation Security Administration are leading the public to believe.
TSA officials insist that the scanning system ensures the privacy of the traveler. The faces of the passengers are blurred, and the images are viewed in a separate room. Scanning operators will have no interaction with the passengers, and none of the images will be recorded or stored.
Even with all these protective guarantees, how long will it take before human transgression overcomes? Imagine if a screener gets a hold of one of these revealing images and uploads it onto YouTube. Keep in mind that a scanned blurred face can alse be reversed.
We can’t just rely on a promise from the TSA that no image will ever be saved.
Steinhardt agrees, “I guarantee you that as this gets more commonly used, you’ll be seeing these images on the Internet.”
If the metal detectors are set off they have the choice to be “body scanned” or frisked.
It won’t be long before the convenience of these machines will take over all other previous forms of security.
The scanners are already being used in seven countries at international airports. In addition to John F. Kennedy and Los Angeles International the scanners are also being used at several courthouses and jails in five U.S. states.
Having strangers view the most intimate curves of your body in order to travel is an infringement on our rights and privacy.
When an onslaught of technological innovations are coupled with a governent’s continuing trend to use technology to allow Orwellian watchdog practices, civil liberties will continue to take a back seat.
The real danger occurs when the American people begin to adapt the attitude that the government can do whatever they want – as long as it keeps us safe.
Ashley Deffebach is a senior journalism major and a contributing writer for the Daily Forty-Niner.
