New high-tech airport imagers -- common sense to keep us safe or unacceptable invasion of privacy?

Now that sources are saying they could have prevented the guy from getting on board, I’m all for them even more. I see no problem with them at all. How could they invade someones privacy? Big hoot, some guy will see your panties, these same people buy stuff on the internet and risk getting their identity stolen.

I say so what. I’m all for it. I don’t care what they see. I doubt after seeing hundreds of thousands of bodies they’d be getting off on it.

Everyone has a body. I’d prefer to keep mine. What privacy would it violate? Do you suppose they are paying any attention after the first 25 scans when the novelty has worn off? Besides if anyone is truly upset by this, I’m sure the scanners can be taught to pixellate private parts a little.

@pdworkin Pixellated private parts? Sounds kinky.

Last year I was given the choice to go through one of these scanners or not, they were testing them out in Melbourne Airport, I chose not too. lol, They completely show you naked.

yeah I agree with @trailsillustrated ; I’m sure after seeing everyone’s bodies day after day, it’s not that big a deal to them.

I would, however, be uncomfortable if it was viewable to ANYONE other than the TSA workers….

@pjanaway How do you know they show you completely naked?

@Ansible1 – Thats what I was told in the airport by the staff. Don’t know if they were joking with me or not, I wouldn’t of thought so.. lol

Hmm, well the segment I saw on the news this morning about this showed an example image of a body scan. It was basically a black and white outline of a human body with black marks within the body frame to detail various things. I would have no problem with privacy issues. My concern would be any health risks, harmful radiation or stuff like that

I really dont see it as a violation of my privacy, I would rather have that then a bomb on the plane. It seems thats the only real way to make us safer, keeping a blanket off your lap is just silly, the man could have set the bomb off in the lavatory after all.

I just read about these new machines myself. I’m wondering how can they be medically safe for all people. Let’s take pregnant women as an example? If everyone else is required to go through the machine (as per example), what about them, are they now required to go to a strip search to avoid the machine?

They should do whatever is feasible to make us safer at the Airports, Malls and all Public places. Temporarily giving up a little freedom to be safe is preferable to another 9/11 .
These terrorist are barbarians they wish to kill us because we are free. We are not the the ones who are prejudice they are. We should not allow them to infiltrate our country . We have a right to defend ourselves. America is the most accepting nation in the world. We accept those who wish to assimilate in our nation. We should never placate those who wish do harm us.

I agree with @RedPowerLady. As far as I’m concerned, the safety hasn’t been proven to my satisfaction. Supposedly the FDA has “cleared” them, but this is the same FDA that brought us Vioxx and trovofloxacin (remember that one? It was an antibiotic that caused liver failure).

Especially with the revelations that CT scans are giving us more radiation than we thought, I don’t want to submit to one of these things. The Congresspeople and others who are pushing them should be the guinea pigs; not me.

I should add that I’ve been through one of these machines when they were tested in my local airport. It was humiliating. Travelers have to “assume the position,” with their arms in the air and legs spread apart. Knowing that my naked body was in full view didn’t help.

@Dr_Dredd The Congresspeople and others who are pushing them should be the guinea pigs; not me. Lurve.

@pdworkin The Japanese already have the Pixelate-my-privates technology worked out for their porn.

@melanie81 As I understand it, only security officers in a separate room see the scans. The traveling public and even the TSA worker supervising people going through the scanner are not able to see the image. And the image isn’t preserved. It’s there for the worker to look at on screen, but not printed out.

Ansible1 It’s no more radiation than you get in 2 hours of flight on a commercial airline.

@Dr_Dredd IMHO, the safety of bombs on airlines is even more in question.

@ETpro True, but there are other ways of finding them. If this guy was on a watch list, he should have been physically searched.

@Dr_Dredd YES, SHOUT HALLELUJAH!!! Can I get an Amen, brothers?

The talking heads have been droning on for days now about how there are 500,000 names on the watch list and you can’t move them all to the no-fly list. Fair enough, but hey, it’s a WATCH list. You can WATCH them. A few questions from a security officer and this guy would have started to sweat bullets. Like, “The new year is coming right up. What do you plan to do in 2010.” Given he expected to blow up that very day, I bet he didn’t have an answer for that question on the tip of his tongue. A good pat-down would have found his explosive-packed panties. There are steps between a No Fly List and a No Questions Asked.

Agreed, @ETpro. That would certainly be sensible.