TSA Buys 150 Body Scanners For Digital Strip Searches

The Transportation Security Administration announced this week that will be expanding its full-body scanner program which takes digital images of a passenger’s body underneath their clothes at airport security checkpoints. The agency will procure 150 of the machines, with five showing up at Sea-Tac Airport next year.

The body scanners, which critics say provide a digital strip search and are detailed enough to show genitalia, will be an alternative to metal detectors, the TSA announced. According to the TSA:

Advanced imaging technology does not store, print, transmit or save the image. All machines have zero storage capability and all images are automatically deleted from the system after they are reviewed by the remotely located security officer.

Of course I believe the TSA is being honest about its procedures. However, how many of us trust anyone with  naked images of ourselves? Aside from the violations to basic civil rights being argued in Congress, what security measures are in place to make sure there are absolutely no copies made? (Any basic smartphone can take screenshots.) Also will the “remotely located security officer” also be monitored to make sure they aren’t doing anything inappropriate?

I think in the eagerness to embrace technology and security, perhaps the TSA has sacrificed what little humanity it had left. Already we are asking passengers to give up their shoes, their belts, their laptops, any liquids over 3 ounces – and now we want them naked to make an agent’s job easier. When does ease start eclipsing basic humanity and decency? Will it be before or after the mandatory body cavity search?