Airport Body Scanners and Personal Privacy

Airport Body Scanners and Personal Privacy Believe it or not, there was a time when passengers showed up an hour before their flights and walked directly to their assigned gates without taking off their shoes at a security screening station or throwing away their bottles of water. There was even a time when friends and family met passengers at the gate and watch their flights take off or land without having a ticket or identification…and that was only ten years ago. Air travel safety precautions changed dramatically after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that targeted passenger planes in the United States and killed well over 1,000 people. Precautions continue to evolve as new threats are detected and passengers are now concerned about where to draw the line with invasion of privacy versus national security, particularly with the introduction of the body scanners at security checkpoints. Flight passengers must accept the use of body scanners to ensure safe air travel for all. In 2007, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began distributing body scanners to use at security checkpoints in airports. There was an instant outrage when people were told that the scanners produced images of passengers without clothing. As of September 2010, there were 200 body scanners at 50 airports in the United States with hundreds more to come (Stellin 2010). Disgruntled passengers have vehemently protested the invasion of privacy resulting from the body scan images. Passengers are equally angry with the alternative to the body scan: an intrusive, full-body pat-down that is more intimate than pat-downs of the past. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, “The TSA has recently changed its guidelines and these pat-downs are now much more invasive. Screeners are now authorized to use the front of their hands and to touch areas around breasts and groins.” (2010). Women and men both liken the new pat-down regulations to sexual molestation and claim