Image by Travelin’ Librarian via Flickr
What do you do when a stranger can see what you look like under neath your clothes? Does this cross the lines of safety to invading
ones privacy with the goal of “safety” as a reason? Having the ability to view what someone looks like underneath their clothes is something that should be considered private. Maybe we worry about people carrying weapons underneath their clothing but we have metal scanners for that and body checks. The need to in cooperate a body scan which would visually revile ones body structure is something that is redundant and even evading ones privacy. In this article ‘10 airports install body scanners’ http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20080606/a_bodyscan06.art.htm certain airports (L.A. And NYC ) are starting to place these scanners in security check points.
“The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently started using body scans on randomly chosen passengers in Los Angeles, Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque and at New York’s Kennedy airport.
Airports in Dallas, Detroit, Las Vegas and Miami will be added this month. Reagan National Airport in Washington starts using a body scanner today. A total of 38 machines will be in use within weeks.”
The concern that comes to mind is how far is to far? The metal scanners, and pat downs are all acceptable methods to check for weapons or guns. But starting to see a person naked by a stranger i would think is crossing the line and going into strange and uncomfortable. Next topic of concern would be how safe are these scans and how/who is viewing the scannie ? The USA today article describes this :
“The scanners bounce harmless “millimeter waves” off passengers who are selected to stand inside a portal with arms raised after clearing the metal detector. A TSA screener in a nearby room views the black-and-white image and looks for objects on a screen that are shaded differently from the body. Finding a suspicious object, a screener radios a colleague at the checkpoint to search the passenger.”
Thus millimeter waves are actually Extremely high frequency waves which do not actually impact the person, but once again this come downs to concerns of privacy , and when is the limit reached when safety does not over ride a persons right to not be viewed naked? Thus we are starting to enter an age where we have lost the right to state who can view us naked an who can not all in the name of safety! You make ask what if you decline the body scan; then you would have to do a full body pat down as stated in the article. “Passengers can decline to go through a scanner, but they will face a pat-down.” Thus either way the TSA and the government will get their hands on you to make their case. Comments views or rebuttals?
