Jan Freeman writes The Word column for Ideas.
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« Jong says Amen | Main | Do not wear this LED jellyfish » Thursday, October 11, 2007Through a scanner darklyAt Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport today, the US government began testing a "millimeter wave" airport body-scanning machine that could eventually be used instead of metal detectors, reports the Associated Press. Since February, the Phoenix airport has been testing a similar machine that uses "backscatter radiation" (a narrow, low-intensity x-ray beam) to scans the entire body at a high speed. A millimeter wave full-body scanning system -- already in use in Amsterdam's airport -- uses non-ionizing electromagnetic waves to generate an image based on the energy reflected from the body. What's the difference, you ask? Here's a backscatter x-ray scan:  And here's a millimeter wave scan:  "To protect privacy, the image will be shown on screens in a completely different area than where the screening is taking place," the AP reports. The Transportation Security Administration officer doing the screening will never see the computer image, and images will not be saved, according to a TSA spokeswoman. Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's program on technology and liberty, doesn't buy it. "I continue to believe that these are virtual strip searches," Steinhardt said. "If Playboy published them, there would be politicians out there saying they're pornographic." Posted by Joshua Glenn at 08:04 PM
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