The Naked Truth

As people across the U.S. shuffle through airport security en route to their Thanksgiving destinations this coming week, protestors of the new Advanced Imaging Technology scanners are encouraging travelers to opt out of the scanning process and ask to be pat down instead. Although pat-downs are a worthwhile option to account for cultural opposition to the images the scanners produce, these “naked image” scanners are an important security measure that is worth the invasion of privacy they may necessitate.

The threat to security in airports has become increasingly complex; as a result, the introduction of more invasive security protocols is to be expected. The modes of concealing weapons and explosives have evolved recently, as the man who unsuccessfully hid a bomb in his underwear showed, and the Transportation Security Administration needed to respond by adding levels of literal transparency to thwart terrorist attempts. These full-body scanners, at least momentarily, accomplish this goal while still maintaining traffic flow and avoiding rampant, invasive, full-body pat downs.

Although some people may feel uncomfortable with the new technology, most travelers should not be swayed by the “opt-out” campaign. For the majority of travelers, who are not opposed for a cultural or personal reason to outsiders seeing an image of their body, the scanners are not an egregious invasion of privacy. People’s faces are blurred, and the person seeing the image is in a remote location and is not the official watching travelers go through the scanner. A person in an entirely different location seeing an image of one’s body with no face attached is not a reason to massively slow down security and cause delays at the airport, as the campaign would presumably do.

Considering the increasing need for more “invasive” virtual measures, we appreciate the TSA’s continued consideration of the importance of keeping images of people anonymous and secure. In addition to the blurring of faces and remote viewing, the scanners are intended to be void of any measure for storing images after leaving test mode at the TSA test sites—although it appears that some images were inadvertently stored in the past. Still, the images will not be sent over a network, making them largely protected from hacking. These notable precautions, taken to prevent embarrassment through leakage of these images, should be seen as a display of the TSA’s consideration of people’s qualms about the machines. And the fact that the pat-down option exists for those whose religions or cultures preclude them from being scanned shows cultural sensitivity on the TSA’s part.

Moreover, we support the new scanners because they can be used to more thoroughly check most travelers instead of selectively subjecting people to additional security checks. This added fairness avoids racial profiling while performing a more complete and thorough check on everyone who goes through the security line.

These advanced imaging scanners are a natural improvement of airport security and should be welcomed as they become more prevalent in airports across the country. As security concerns heighten further, the TSA should continue to ensure security in airports and on planes while still bearing in mind cultural and personal sensitivities.