Shoutbox

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Originally posted by http://www.usatoday.com/travel/news/2005-05-15-airport-xray-bottomstrip_x.htm
Air travelers stripped bare with X-ray machine

By Thomas Frank, USA TODAY

The agency in charge of the nation's air security expects later this year to begin using a controversial X-ray machine that will show airport screeners a clear picture of what's under passengers' clothes — whether weapons or just bare skin.

The new system makes it easy to see possibly dangerous devices. 
Rapiscan Systems

Screeners plan to test the "backscatter" machines at several U.S. airports, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) says. The refrigerator-sized machines are considered a breakthrough in scanning technology but have been labeled "a virtual strip search" by the American Civil Liberties Union. (Related story: Airports test 'futureworld' devices)

Security workers using the machines can see through clothes and peer at whatever may be hidden in undergarments, shirts or pants. The images also paint a revealing picture of a person's nude body.

The devices can potentially be used to screen hundreds of millions of air travelers each year, although TSA says more study is needed to determine how the devices may be used at U.S. airports. The agency declined to say when and where it expects to test the machines.

Backscatter technology has been waiting on the sidelines for nearly four years but seems poised now to move to the forefront of aviation security. The machines are already used by U.S. Customs agents at 12 airports to screen passengers suspected of carrying drugs. They're also getting a test run at a terminal in London Heathrow Airport, the first major airport to use them.

The ACLU says the scanners invade personal privacy. "This leads directly to a surveillance society," says Barry Steinhardt, who runs the group's technology program.

But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told a Senate subcommittee last month that he wants to employ the technology and doesn't want an "endless debate" over privacy issues.

Security consultant Douglas Laird says the machines are essential to spot explosives, which aren't detected by metal detectors.

The $100,000 machines bounce low-radiation X-rays off a person's skin to produce photo-like computer images of metal, plastic and organic materials hidden under clothes, says American Science and Engineering. The TSA is testing its BodySearch machine.

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In my opinion, it is simply watching pornographic pictures during work hours for the screeners, the travellers unwillingly making pornographic pictures, and child pornography for minors travelling. MAJOR privacy issue here peoples.

that guy looks like he's wearing a thong

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Originally posted by NagamasaAzai
In my opinion, it is simply watching pornographic pictures during work hours for the screeners, the travellers unwillingly making pornographic pictures, and child pornography for minors travelling. MAJOR privacy issue here peoples.

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I agree about the privacy issues... that's really dodgy...

But I wouldn't consider it pornography... there are no erotic or sexual acts depicted...

Well maybe I exaggerated a little bit about the pornography. Just explicit pictures.

I think this would be good to use along side the normal metal detectors, like if it goes off you walk through one of these so it doesn't take as long to show them where the metal is (I hate waiting).  Even though there might be some privacy issues it is much better this way than having to strip down to show them IMO.  I know that my grandad sets off the metal detectors with his knee because of his knee reconstruction an I'm sure he would prefer to do it this way than to go through all the other stupid rigmarole of the hand held metal detectors and that kind of thing.

I don't think this is pornographic at all unless you use a lot of imagination (but you might as well google instead ). 

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Originally posted by WDZ

But I wouldn't consider it pornography... there are no erotic or sexual acts depicted...

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come people could still get ther jolly's off that

Hmm I think it will be a good thing since it will stop people smuggling stuff that doesnt get caught by the metal detectors (or the dogs =p)

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Originally posted by markee
I think this would be good to use along side the normal metal detectors, like if it goes off you walk through one of these so it doesn't take as long to show them where the metal is (I hate waiting).  Even though there might be some privacy issues it is much better this way than having to strip down to show them IMO.  I know that my grandad sets off the metal detectors with his knee because of his knee reconstruction an I'm sure he would prefer to do it this way than to go through all the other stupid rigmarole of the hand held metal detectors and that kind of thing.

I don't think this is pornographic at all unless you use a lot of imagination (but you might as well google instead ).

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err but then it will only work for metal....

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In my opinion, it is simply watching pornographic pictures during work hours for the screeners, the travellers unwillingly making pornographic pictures, and child pornography for minors travelling. MAJOR privacy issue here peoples.

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I disagree.

First of all, nudity and porn are two different things.   

Second, I have shocking news for everyone worried about their "privacy":  roughly 50% of humans have a penis, the other 50% have a vagina.  They all look about the same.  If you think yours is special in any way, you are being silly.  If you think the airport screener, who probably has seen a thousand of each on his X-ray machine just that morning, before you walked through it, is even going to give a second thought to yours -- you are being silly.

Obsessive shyness (as well as failure to differentiate between nudity and sexual situations) is a very recent phenomenon and it is not helping make the world a better place.  Get over it.

Other than that, I think these machines are a great idea and far more useful than most of the idiotic airport security measures to date.  The notion that offensive weapons must be made of metal is about 40 years obsolete;  today, we have plastic and ceramic materials to build an excellent assault rifle without using a single metal part.   Metal-free firearms are not mass produced and may be hard to obtain, but an effetive ceramic blade of any size could be easily made in somebody's garage. 

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Originally posted by Adeptus
  roughly 50% of humans have a penis, the other 50% have a vagina.

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the average human has 1 testical and 1 breast

But a lot of people are embarassed because they have a disability in the 'area' or maybe they might think they are small.