Airport body scanners 'virtual strip searches' Date: April 19 2008
Dan Weikel, Los Angeles TRAVELERS at Los Angeles and New York airports will be searched using a new scanner that peers through their clothes and creates an image of the person's body, federal officials announced. The sophisticated technology, called millimetre wave imaging, might prove to be a more effective way to check travelers for guns, knives, bombs and dangerous materials than pat-down searches. But it has raised questions by privacy and civil rights advocates, who say the screening process is invasive and amounts to a virtual strip search. "I don't think people are really aware of just how accurate and detailed the images are of their naked body," said Peter Bibring, a staff lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union in Los Angeles. "We need to make sure there are good safeguards. The temptation is great not to follow procedures when a celebrity or someone well known is involved." Millimetre wave pictures are white and dark gray. Although somewhat fuzzy, they are detailed enough to reveal such features as breasts and body anomalies. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials said the agency planned to buy at least 30 more devices this year for other airports. It unveiled the "whole body imaging" machine at the Delta Airlines terminal at the Los Angeles airport on Thursday. Another millimetre wave machine was rolled out at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. The devices, part of a pilot program involving major airports, are being tested under actual conditions. "This will allow us to enhance our security at LAX (Los Angeles airport)," said Nico Melendez, a TSA spokesman. "Imaging devices are not a brand new security tool, but they are a brand new security tool for airports." Travelers randomly selected for secondary screening will go through the scanning device, which uses electromagnetic waves to create an image from energy reflected from the human body. The device costs about $US150,000 ($A160,000). If passengers don't want to go through the scanner, they can opt for other screening measures, including pat-down searches. Signs in the checkpoint area will advise travelers of this option. During the process, a person walks into a large portal and assumes two positions for the scan. A three-dimensional image later appears on a computer screen checked by a security official in a separate location. The process takes a minute or two. To protect a person's privacy, officials said that security officers review the images in a booth about 20 metres away and are unable to see the passenger in question. The faces of those scanned are blurred, and the images cannot be stored, copied or printed, officials said. According to the TSA, about 80% of travelers scanned during recent tests at Sky Harbour International Airport in Phoenix opted for the imaging machine instead of a pat-down search. Mr Melendez said there have been no complaints from passengers since testing began at Sky Harbour late last year. Civil-rights and privacy advocates say the images are detailed depictions of the naked human body and should be tightly controlled to prevent them from being posted on the internet, sold to tabloid publications or misused in other ways. LOS ANGELES TIMES
