Coming up in US airline screening operations: so-called “backscatter” X-ray machines.
They screening machines that check passenger’s clothing for weapons will be tested at New York’s Kennedy and Los Angeles International airports, officials confirmed.
“We will not roll out body imaging that does not have very high standards of privacy protection,” TSA chief Kip Hawley said in an interview with USA Today. “We’ll use a variety of measures including software that may obscure some features.”
The machines are capable of showing passengers’ bodily parts, but TSA says they will not because of privacy concerns. The agency says the machines will use software to blur images of passengers. Screeners will see weapons but only fuzzy images of people’s bodies.
Their use will be voluntary for passengers who are pulled aside for extra screening beyond a metal detector.
The American Civil Liberties Union has objected to the technology, calling it a “virtual strip search.”
The first such X-ray machine was tested in Phoenix. A vast majority of passengers there chose to be scanned by the X-ray machine rather than security pat downs, according to the TSA.
The X-ray machines emit small amounts of radiation, according to federal research.
Report by David Wilkening
