Body Scanner Use Prompts Privacy Fears
Updated: Wednesday, 30 Dec 2009, 8:42 AM PST
Published : Tuesday, 29 Dec 2009, 10:22 PM PST
Posted by: Tony Spearman
Los Angeles - One of the devices that could have prevented last Friday's failed attack is a full body scanner, which can see if anyone is hiding explosives under their clothes.
By using the body scanners, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is hoping to detect non-metallic weapons such as plastic and liquid explosives that would not be found by metal detectors.
Metal detectors, which cost about $10,000, have been used in airports since 1973. The body scanners cost approximately $170,000.
The body scanners have raised concerns among privacy advocates.
"We're getting closer and closer to a required strip-search to board an airplane," Barry Steinhardt of the American Civil Liberties Union had told USA Today in 2008.
However, the TSA says the images don't reveal as much as people think. "We've struck a very good balance between security and privacy," TSA spokesman Christopher White said.
Others are also worried about exposure to radiation with the new machines, but the TSA says the scanners bounce harmless "millimeter waves" off passengers' bodies and use no radiation.
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