Full-Body Scans Rolled Out At All Australian International Airports

suraj.sun writes in with a story about the spread of full body scanners. It reads in part:"Passengers at airports across Australia will be forced to undergo full-body scans or be banned from flying under new laws to be introduced into Federal Parliament this week. In a radical $28 million security overhaul, the scanners will be installed at all international airports from July and follows trials at Sydney and Melbourne in August and September last year. The Government is touting the technology as the most advanced available, with the equipment able to detect metallic and non-metallic items beneath clothing. It's also keen to allay concerns raised on travel online forums that passengers would appear nude on security screens as they had when similar scanners were introduced at U.S. airports. The technology will show passengers on a screen as stick figures of neither sex."

Comments

Re:I always wanted to go to Australia

[g0bshiTe]

Of course you could still fly to NZ and perhaps take a cruise ship the rest of the way, just saying if you really wanted to go without a full body scan.

Sterilization

[concealment]

The radiation used in the scanners might also sterilize us.

That way not only does the world learn that you have a miniscule penis, but they also know it's no longer a working one.

Re:Who in the Aussie government got the kickback?

[tgd]

There are two kinds of body scanners -- XRay and terahertz. EU banned the former, not the latter.

The picture in the article is a terahertz machine. That's what L-3 makes.

Re:Government Contract in Search of a Problem?

[Richard_at_work]

The problem that it solves is the ability to fly aircraft to the USA - the US lays down the requirements for the security of flights that are flying to a US airport or over their airspace, and if the flights do not meet the requirements, tehy do not fly direct (see the issue of the Pakistan International Airlines issues where for a long long time after they bought their brand new Boeing 777s, they had to do a stop over in Manchester, UK on all Pakistan-USA flights, deboard the aircraft and everyone was put through UK security before the plane could depart for the US (the plane was also subject to search while the passengers were offloaded).

If the security measures do not match up to what the US wants, you have problems flying to the US...

Sure, its a self made problem, but its a problem none-the-less.