# On the subject of airport body scanners (again) **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 4, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196 "2010-08-04T22:10:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/21 "2010-08-05T20:40:18Z")
> [@](#): > > Seems to me like privacy is taking a back seat here and while I would probably prefer safety over privacy, the whole “Oh yeah, we need to save them for..uh..testing purposes” excuse seems hinky. I wasn’t too concerned in the other thread, and I have to say that I’ve seen nothing thus far to change my mind. So they are saving the images? I know for a fact that security guards have been saving images captured from security camera systems for…well, for as long as they have had the things. So, consider the fact that the next time you are in a mall, there are almost surly PTZ cameras that are looking around, and, odds are that some security guard is using a joystick (heh) to make sure there aren’t any dangerous criminals wearing mini-skirts and tight tee shirts trying to perpetrate crimes and such. -XT ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/22 "2010-08-05T21:07:29Z")
> [@](#): > > The snickering or lack of trust among TSA agents is far outweighed by the need for national security and American’s short attention-span theater desire to zip through security. You seem to be under the impression that the TSA has anything whatsoever to do with security. They’re entertainers, not security personnel. Their job is to make people feel good. If they actually wanted to improve security, they could do away with the checkpoints entirely. This would have no effect at all on how safe flying is, but would remove the possibility of a terrorist bombing the crowd of people waiting in line at the checkpoint. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/23 "2010-08-06T01:52:29Z")
> [@Mr\_Smashy](#): > > Indeed, the first one is from an obviously highly biased site (they refer to TSA as “The Thugs”), and the last one is a blog entry complaining about his girlfriend being scanned. What if it’s the sites that _don’t_ refer to the TSA as “The Thugs” that are biased? 😃 If they insist on doing stupid things, it’s their own damn fault if they get insulted for it. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/24 "2010-08-06T02:19:25Z")
As someone mentioned in the link thread, the UK seems to be putting a stop on things until they figure out how this will mesh with strict anti-child pornography laws. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [August 6, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/25 "2010-08-06T20:34:33Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Fuck, if it’ll let me breeze through security in ten seconds flat, I could care less if somebody sees the grey outline of my dick. I wound up in the body-scan line at BWI a few weeks ago and it took _longer_. Had to empty everything out of my pockets, not just coins/keys, they made me go through twice because I didn’t know to remove the tissues from my pockets, I had to wait until the screener go the “all clear” on her earpiece from someone who could see the image, and I got my legs / waist patted down before they let me go on. Apparently, I have suspicious-looking flab 😕 :p. There’s no time savings at all, in other words. ---
**Author:** ![bubba\_jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@bubba\_jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubba_jr)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/26 "2010-08-07T04:34:32Z")
I was grabbed last month for the full body scanner, and then on this last flight, my local airport went to 100% scanners. Its a “Rapi-Scan”, which I assume is short for “RAPID scan”. Its not. Its slow as hell. I think me an my girlfriend are the only 2 people ever to fly with metal zippers and an under wire bra. This last trip, she had nothing in her pockets, absolutely no jewelry, just jeans, underroos, bra and shirt. She got the full body pat down, manual verification around her coochie to make sure it was a zipper, manual verification of the underwire bra, wanded and then asked if she wanted to in back for a visual inspection. She was pissed and unzipped her pants and pulled her shirt right up. Some 12 year old got a nice visual that will keep him spanking it for months. I got the full body pat down and manual verification that there was a penis behind my zipper. And then they took my boarding pass and X-rayed it, those dangerous boarding passes. Fricken useless. There are so many other giant holes its not even funny. Some airports have the Xray machines that come in from just one angle, some from 2 angles. I was watching a program a while back that showed how easy it is to camouflage a big ass knife if you know which way the bag is going to be Xrayed from. X rayed from 2 angles pretty darn impossible. The metal detectors, I’m sure some of you have noticed, but the sensitivity has been turned WAY WAY down since just after 9/11. They used to pick up zippers on jeans, glasses, foil packed gum. I walked through without taking off my belt about 3 weeks ago and it didn’t go off. And then the TSA, the ones with the “database” until recently didn’t actually check the name on your boarding pass against the “database”. If the name on your ID and your boarding pass was the same, go on through. They pull out there little eye loupes and black lights to check your ID, but if they aren’t checking the name against anything usefull, what the hell is the point. They all seem to have the little stands that scan your boarding pass and pop up your name, and hopefully it is checking it against their “database”, I’ve only seen it in use in Chicago so far, everyplace else I’ve been this summer just has them sitting there not in use yet. I’d like to bitch about the TSA employees, but I really can’t, some of them are obviously the laziest and most useless sacks of carbon based goo to ever ooze across the earth, but for the most part, they are friendly and doing their job. The TSA agency itself, about as effective as Border Patrol. ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/27 "2010-08-08T01:45:55Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > > [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > > > Fuck, if it’ll let me breeze through security in ten seconds flat, I could care less if somebody sees the grey outline of my dick. > > I wound up in the body-scan line at BWI a few weeks ago and it took _longer_. I agree. I don’t understand why people are claiming it saves time. I’ve been through them multiple times and they ALWAYS take longer than going through the metal detector. Might they take less time than a full-body search? Sure, but then at the airport I saw scads of people subjected to full-body searches after going through the scanners. Seriously, folks, especially those who don’t fly enough, need to drop the claim of “faster.” And misuse of the images from the scanner needs to be a Federal felony, with a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and $100,000 fine. Only that is going to stop the “boys with toys” from fucking with the public. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/28 "2010-08-08T02:13:43Z")
In case there’s any confusion, I was sure to say if the process was faster, I wouldn’t care about any alleged privacy invasion. If it’s not, then fuck it. ---
**Author:** ![gonzomax](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e8c25b/32.png) [@gonzomax](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gonzomax)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/29 "2010-08-08T02:21:20Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > > [@Lightsaber](#): > > > > 1. Body scanners don’t make airports more secure. > > > > 2. Airport employees are already misusing the technology. > > 1. Can you explain how allowing airport security to see exactly what people are carrying is useless? Also, even if the scanners did nothing at all, they are a deterent. > 2. so what? So sone random guy who has never seen you in person and will never see you again saw the rough outline of your boobs. Who cares?! > > And if he’s Getting off on the pictures linked earlier, he’d be getting off on seeing you fully clothed. Should we seperate all men and women in all public spaces so no one ever looks at anyone elses boobs? It is useless because they don’t catch anybody? ---
**Author:** ![tumbleddown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tumbleddown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tumbleddown)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/30 "2010-08-08T04:27:36Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > Er, WHAT? There’s a black-and-white image that looks like a four year old took a bunch of clay and formed it into the general shape of a human. So what if someone sees your dick’s outline? They don’t know you. WHY DO YOU CARE?! It becomes an issue if seeing your dick when you’re not meant to have one (or not seeing it if you are meant to have one) holds you out for extra scrutiny. It becomes an issue when you’re from a culture where it’s frowned upon to be seen unclothed by even medical personnel of the opposite gender. But largely it’s an issue because they _lied_. They said that the images were not going to be kept. And that happened at a courthouse – most people who go to a courthouse aren’t doing so optionally. You may be able to opt out of flying, but get out of ever reporting for jury duty. And many of the people who go into a courthouse do so regularly. While you may be one of thousands who come through an airport every day and may only go through any given airport once or twice every decade, imagine what staffers who work at that courthouse must be thinking, and how many images are now on file of them, taken by guards who know them and could probably recognize them by sight even in backscatter x-ray form. ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2010, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/31 "2010-08-08T22:24:03Z")
I think there are ways to handle this and protect privacy. Have someone in a booth that looks at the images and doesn’t see who the person is. They can just buzz someone outside to frisk the person if they see something suspicious. Saving the pictures is iffy unless they are randomized. Matching up a name and a picture should require a court order. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/32 "2010-08-09T09:59:36Z")
Well this article (not safe for work). seems to suggest otherwise. Apparently the image can be inverted, to produce a clear image. [http://www.prisonplanet.com/inverted-body-scanner-image-shows-naked-body-in-full-living-color.html](http://www.prisonplanet.com/inverted-body-scanner-image-shows-naked-body-in-full-living-color.html) No comments on the veracity of the claims or the reliability of the source. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/33 "2010-08-09T11:48:23Z")
You know, I had _already_ decided that air travel was too degrading for any trips that didn’t span a continent or an ocean. But that wasn’t enough. They kept working at it. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 12:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/34 "2010-08-09T12:06:06Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Well this article (not safe for work). seems to suggest otherwise. Apparently the image can be inverted, to produce a clear image. > > [Alex Jones' Endgame](http://www.prisonplanet.com/inverted-body-scanner-image-shows-naked-body-in-full-living-color.html) > > No comments on the veracity of the claims or the reliability of the source. It’s not reliable or… veracible… um… whatever. The picture in that story is not what you get from a security scanner, it’s an inverted image of a nude model- which is why it looks so perfect when you re-invert the colors. That image is a total fake. ---
**Author:** ![CannyDan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cannydan/32/548_2.png) [@CannyDan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CannyDan)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/35 "2010-08-09T13:39:34Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > > [@AK84](#): > > > > Well this article (not safe for work). seems to suggest otherwise. Apparently the image can be inverted, to produce a clear image. > > > > [Alex Jones' Endgame](http://www.prisonplanet.com/inverted-body-scanner-image-shows-naked-body-in-full-living-color.html) > > > > No comments on the veracity of the claims or the reliability of the source. > > It’s not reliable or… veracible… um… whatever. > > The picture in that story is not what you get from a security scanner, it’s an inverted image of a nude model- which is why it looks so perfect when you re-invert the colors. That image is a total fake. Yes, I remember a thread giving full citations and details of the hoax, but I don’t have time now to search for it. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/36 "2010-08-09T14:53:35Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > I think there are ways to handle this and protect privacy. Have someone in a booth that looks at the images and doesn’t see who the person is. They can just buzz someone outside to frisk the person if they see something suspicious. Saving the pictures is iffy unless they are randomized. Matching up a name and a picture should require a court order. Man, look at those tits! Someone make sure to press the the “frisk now” buzzer so we can get a nice look. And call Dave up in CCTV so we can match it all together. -Joe, future TSA worker ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/37 "2010-08-09T17:27:33Z")
I know it’s entirely psychological, but the scanners also give me the creeps. I really, really dislike being in them, even if there was no nudity in the images involved. And the TSA employees who man the scanners are the rudest ones I’ve encountered since the early 2000’s, without exception, barking out orders like a drill sergeant. And I thought you had the option of not going through the scanner and instead being given a pat-down? Because when I was passing through the airport two weeks ago a woman tried to refuse and asked for a pat-down and the TSA Barney Fife came over and stood inches from her face and bellowed “IF YOU DO NOT GO THROUGH THE SCANNER, YOU WILL NOT ENTER THE SECURE AREA, PERIOD!” Huh. ---
**Author:** ![lonestar88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d2c977/32.png) [@lonestar88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lonestar88)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/38 "2010-08-09T18:36:02Z")
My wife and I were pulled out of line to go through one on our last trip. It didn’t seem like a big deal. But it was quite a bit slower than going through the regular line. That said. Its kinda sad how f’in paranoid everyone is of the big bad terrorist! How much do we have to do or give up in order to feel ‘safe’! ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/39 "2010-08-09T18:58:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > They’re entertainers, not security personnel. Their job is to make people feel good. If they actually wanted to improve security, they could do away with the checkpoints entirely. This would have no effect at all on how safe flying is, but would remove the possibility of a terrorist bombing the crowd of people waiting in line at the checkpoint. Easy solution: have a security checkpoint for the security checkpoint. It seems we could kill two birds with one stone here. The TSA should also do prostate exams and pap smears. Not only would we be safer but we wouldn’t have to trouble with a doctor’s appointment. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2010, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196/40 "2010-08-09T20:34:50Z")
Well, there’s this guy, a TSA worker who got pissed when his coworkers were making of fun of his shortcomings. > **[Suspicious Package: TSA Worker Jailed After Junk Joke](https://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/tsa-fracas-after-body-scanner-reveals-tmi/2056536/)** > > MIA worker assaults colleague who made crack at genitalia after walk through machine. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-subject-of-airport-body-scanners-again/549196.md?page=3)