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JFK, LAX To Test Millimeter-Wave Scanners
Narrative Fallacy writes "The Transportation Security Administration has announced that it's beginning pilot tests of millimeter wave scanning technology at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) that allow TSA personnel to see concealed weapons and other items that may be hidden beneath clothes. TSA Administrator Kip Hawley says that that the potentially revealing body scans (YouTube) would not be stored and that 90% of passengers subject to secondary screening opt for a millimeter wave scan over a pat-down. The agency added that security officers viewing the scans would do so remotely, where they will not be able to recognize passengers but will be able to trigger an alarm if needed. The agency also said that a blurring algorithm is applied to passengers' faces in scanned images as an additional privacy protection."
before we see "best of anonymous airport scanner" porn sites pop up. On the bright side, the faces will already be blurred. From the I'd-know-that-birthmark-anywhere department.
Invenio via vel creo
How many of those people actually were aware of the pat-down option? I bet it was not 100%. Also, given the fact that even Medical information cannot be reliably kept confidential in most cases, I sincerely doubt this data will. Unless there are strong prison sentences for any employee convicted of disseminating this information, I am not impressed with their statements of security, confidentiality, or purported privacy.
Uh huh. I feel so much better that the pervert checking out my junk is out of sight. Yeah, much better. Ohhh, but I do agree that the blurred faces give additional illusions of privacy. I am certain that all the women feel better that we men aren't looking at their faces.
Yes - but is also needs to be ABSOLUTELY CLEAR to passengers that they have the option to opt out too! I had this experience in London Heathrow - they didn't give me a choice, until I asked if I must do it... after a few minutes of avoiding the question, they sheepishly admitted that I didn't have to.
People are often afraid of challenging any sort of authority these days - for fear of reprisal. That's unacceptable. You shouldn't be afraid to ask questions, and shouldn't be labeled a terrorist for doing so either!
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
Remotely? I bet the security office watching the screen at remote place...is operating by themselves? How easy could he be holding a cellphone and recording all this?
Tell me next time when there is kiddie porn leaked from the video feed of scanner like this.
I'm sure the rat-things will disarm me promptly.
/. articles about sintered armorgel being produced, or I'd be really bad off.
Good thing I remember
You will be baked, and there will be cake.
You're going to die anyway. Might as well just march into the gas chambers peaceably. Don't question the government. It is there "to serve man".
The government is not your daddy. Its purpose is not to raid middle-class neighbors' wallets and give it to you.
All else aside, how much do these things cost? Who's paying?
The homeland security folks have had a blank cheque to pay for whatever cool toys they want for far too long.
Air travel is expensive enough as it is, and considering just how rarely I do it, the taxpayer subsidies are sickening as well.
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I get it all the time, only thing worse than a "white male traveling alone" is a "man of eastern appearance".
How we know is more important than what we know.
Might as well just march into the gas chambers peaceably. Are you seriously going to sit there and say that getting scanned by airport security is the equivalent of Nazi gas chambers? Do you even realize the utter absurdity you've just promulgated? Were you attempting a joke?
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Everyone needs to be making MUCH more fuss. This has got to stop. Even if you believe in the terrorists under the bed nonsense, you have to understand that by allowing security checks etc like this then the terrorists have won without lifting a single finger.
It's probably already too late to reverse most of the harm done by the Bush and Blair/Brown regimes, however that doesn't mean that every thinking person should not be trying to do just that. It's got to stop.
So even if grandma has a new hip and goes through the new scanner she's still getting a pat down. I also beleive this is the case for any alarm form the new scanner
Personally I have to question then how is this an improvement oveer the current magnetometers from a user perspective.
Also I do not for a minute buy the government's assertion this is safe. Plain and simple there isn't enough long term data for them to make that claim.
The easy path is one that leads to losing all your rights. Point out to me precisely where you derive this "right" to getting on an airplane without being searched? Go on, show me. I'm sure you know exactly what paragraph and clause in the Constitution says you have the right to board an airplane without having to comply with security regulations. You have to know because you're so damned sure you've got this "right."
Of course, you have no such right because the law makes no provision for one. If you do not wish to submit to being scanned/searched/whatever, you can take a bus, a cab, or your own personal transportation. No one is restricting your ability to get from point A to point B, there are no traffic control points with Gestapo'd brownshirts saying "papers please." You're making a mountain out of a molehill because it suits your agenda. The bare facts are this: if you wish to travel via air, you are traveling in a collective manner, and the safety of everyone on board -- include your thin-skinned self -- outweighs your individual right to be a paranoid, the-government-is-out-to-get-me-all-the-time passenger. If the above security measures offend you so much, put your moral fortitude where your mouth is and don't travel by air. Or, if you must, charter your own flight and skip security altogether. Yes, it's expensive, or time consuming, or annoying depending upon what alternate mode of travel you chose, but if you're so terrified of losing your "right to privacy," it's a small price to pay...right?
I don't trust the government any further than I can throw it, but I don't trust you either. That's why I'm happy as hell people are screened before they get on a plane with me, and I wish like hell they'd scan more of them and more thoroughly.
In the end they will lay their freedom at our feet and say to us, Make us your slaves, but feed us. - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I submit that if a TSA screener should be entitled to such a scan, that I should be entitled to see them do the same. Unfortunately, given the appearance and physical fitness of your average screener, I think I'm getting the short end of the stick even in that case.
In all seriousness, though, these sorts of violations by our governments upon the governed is the intent of terrorism. Civilians are the indirect target. By making them afraid, the government is pressured or motivated to enact increasingly restrictive laws and methods of enforcement to assuage that fear and protect the populace. The terrorists know that full protection is impossible, so they continue until the loss of freedom becomes so intolerable that the people overthrow the government. The politicians and so-called elected officials know this, but play into their hands anyway--in the short term, the power grab is irresistible.
The entire focus on security (and technology to improve such security) is wrongheaded, and is a convenient diversion from the real issue, which is why people become terrorists in the first place. People don't explode themselves for no reason whatsoever. No amount of technology, legislation, or vigilance will ever address the root cause that incites an individual to such fervor that they are willing to DIE to achieve their aims.
But again, the politicians know this--so one must call into question their own motivation for pushing these measures on the public. When I have the ability to subject each and every last one of our elected officials, corporate officers, and whomever is telling me I'm supposed to be OK with being scanned and exposed in such a humiliating fashion, to the exact same treatment, then and only then would I consider accepting such a practice. When I can see Dick Cheney's ugly-ass flaps of man-tits hanging over his oversized belly obscuring his undersized privates (mind you, not that I would ever risk the subsequent psychological scarring), I might reconsider. And if even one scan ever gets leaked or misused in any way, I'd like to see the scans of each and every one of those people involved in promoting this technology released all over the internet for everyone to laugh at as punishment. Otherwise, their promises and reassurances mean nothing.
It is not a question of trust, freedom, modesty, or security. It is a question of accountability; because without that, everything else is meaningless. To the extent that those that watch us do not desire to be watched by us is the precise extent to which we are not a free and just society.
Has nothing to do with Puritan influences. This is extending the invasion of privacy to a very private level. So now, to travel any where I have to do the equivalent of dragging my clothes off for some anonymous screener. Thank you, no.
Mo00o
The scans have to be stored for criminal prosecution and accident/incident investigation.
Get off my lawn.
First the disclaimer... I am a researcher in a related field and so have a vested interest in the public perception of this technology. That being said... The parent article is somewhat misleading. There are actually two seperate technologies that are being looked at for this application X-ray backscatter and Millimeter-wave... The TSA has a good summary of the difference( http://www.tsa.gov/approach/tech/body_imaging.shtm) The youtube refenced in the parent article actually shows X-ray backscatter images. The millimeter-wave images are generally much lower resolution (limited by the physics of imaging at these wavelengths) but have the advantage of using a portion of the spectrum where the radiation is completely innocuous from a health perspective. However, both technologies are competing for a market that may not exist if the public backlash is severe. I personally am perplexed by the reactions that some post... Given that some sort of secondary screening is inevitable, would you really rather have a stranger touching you during a pat down than have an individual in another room looking at blurry images of your form.
Yes, It's an unreasonable infringement of privacy, because it's useless and gives an unreasonable amount of power to airport "cops", with apparently no counterpower.
And explain to me how it is constitutional that "eastern looking" people systematicaly spend twice the time boarding their plane (when they can). Perhaps one day you'll get your wish. Maybe it'll be the day Abdullah and Hassan decide to blow up the plane you're riding in. Well that answers my question about your fear of racial discrimination I guess. But you can feel safe: all people whose name are Hassan are on the no fly list! Why? because it could be an alias for Hussein! And by the way, the ghosts of the terrorist who killed themselves on 9/11 will not be able to board, either! And for those who happen to have the same name? It's just bad luck.
Don't take my posts literally; it's just code to control my botnet.
And by the government's usual logic, frequent fliers will soon fall under suspicion of being exhibitionists, and prosecuted accordingly.
Does anyone have pictures of what the resulting scans look like? The only one I could find was on the tsa.gov website.
If that's what it really looks like, then I don't understand how there is any real controversy here. You'd have to be a desperate fella to get aroused by that. Any of these technologies, I assume, are going to be very abstract representations of the human body, hardly something comparable to an actual naked photo of you.
In the end, people will always be able to see you naked the old fashioned way: using their imagination. Get over your vanity, honestly.
"Arrr, I curse the shark that stole me leg." -PegLegPete