{"id":112326,"date":"2009-12-29T17:54:46","date_gmt":"2009-12-29T22:54:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.discovermagazine.com\/80beats\/?p=8152"},"modified":"2009-12-29T17:54:46","modified_gmt":"2009-12-29T22:54:46","slug":"are-digital-strip-searches-coming-soon-to-every-airport-near-you-80beats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/112326","title":{"rendered":"Are Digital Strip Searches Coming Soon To Every Airport Near You? | 80beats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tsa-release-images-400-web\"The Christmas Day airplane<\/a> bombing attempt has renewed the debate over full body scanners at airports. The Transportation Security Administration in recent years has tried out a series of \u201cwhole-body imagers\u201d to look for threats that typical metal detectors can\u2019t find. These systems are the only way that smuggled explosives, like the one officials say was brought on the Christmas flight, can be reliably found [Wired.com<\/em><\/a>]. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Privacy<\/a> advocates are calling the full body scanners a “digital strip search<\/a>” (take a look at this TSA image of a full body scan and you’ll get the idea). But some\u00a0security<\/a> advocates say that either patting down every passenger or taking full body scans are the only options to ensure certain dangerous items are kept off airplanes. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span>Right now there are 40 full body scanners<\/a> in 19 different U.S. airports. Only 6 airports use them for primary screening, the rest are used for follow-up searches. These scanners use millimeter-wave sensors that emit radio frequencies. By measuring the differences in the radiated energy, the scanner produces detailed 3-D images that resembles photo negatives. TSA has also ordered 150 similar scanners, at about $170,000 each, that use backscatter X-ray<\/a> technology, after the completion of a successful\u00a0pilot\u00a0project.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

TSA says privacy concerns are\u00a0unwarranted\u00a0since facial features (and other body parts?) are blurred out before the screening officer, who is in a separate room, sees the images.\u00a0A senior U.S. air security source acknowledged the ongoing controversy over using the high-resolution body scanners that can show breast enhancements, body piercings and genitals. Full-body scanners currently in use in the U.S. have been set on a “politically correct” lower resolution that prevented screeners from seeing the outlines of genitals, the source said [New York Daily News<\/em><\/a>]. <\/span>Supposedly, the images will be permanently\u00a0deleted immediately after screening.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Last June, the House of Representative voted 310 to 118 to oppose the use of full body scanners as a primary means of screening passengers. This doesn’t mean the issue is dead however, as\u00a0President Obama<\/a> has ordered a system-wide review on all screening procedures.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Related Content:
\n80beats: Editing Goof Puts TSA Airport Screening Secrets on the Web<\/a>
\n80beats: Computer Glitch Delays Airline Flights Around the Country<\/a>
\nDISCOVER: A Wing and a Prayer: The U.S.\u2019s Crumbling Air-Travel Infrastructure<\/a>
\n80beats: Researcher Discovers Effective Profiling; Says It\u2019s More Trouble Than It\u2019s Worth<\/a>
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Image: TSA<\/em><\/p>\n

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The Christmas Day airplane bombing attempt has renewed the debate over full body scanners at airports. The Transportation Security Administration in recent years has tried out a series of \u201cwhole-body imagers\u201d to look for threats that typical metal detectors can\u2019t find. These systems are the only way that smuggled explosives, like the one officials say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":641,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-112326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/641"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}