airport scanners

Opt out or opt in? Airport scanners & pat-downs in the news

TSA BACKSCATTER

The news has been filled with stories about the TSA’s new enhanced body pat-downs, the new airport body scanners and campaigns encouraging people to opt out of the scanning process. Travelers left and right are posting their accounts of the pat-down process.

Need to catch up? Here are some of the stories:

USA TODAY has posted two opinion pieces on the airport scanning issue:

Our view on security vs. privacy: Critics bash airport scans, but what’s their alternative?

and

Opposing view on security vs. privacy: Honor basic dignity by James Babb and George Donnelly, the co-founders of the We Won’t Fly group.

Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, of Miracle on the Hudson fame, shared his opinion about whether or not airline personnel should be subjected to full body pat-downs and advanced imaging scanners.

and

Gizmodo got its hands on – and posted – photographs of 100 of the 35,000 images U.S. Marshals in a Florida Federal Courthouse saved on a scanner. These images don’t come from an airport scanner – Department of Homeland Security and TSA have promised that airport scanners do not have the capability to save images – but Gizmodo and others clearly aren’t confident that’s the real story.

There’s more. LOTS more.  Check back later….

Airport pat-downs, body-scanners, x-rays and you

TSA BACKSCATTER

There’s been a flurry of news – some real, some fussed-up – about concerns and confrontations about body-scanners and enhanced pat-downs at airports.

Need to catch up?

This Reuters article explains the concerns pilots have about stepped up screening at U.S. airports.

On his NPR blog, Shots, Richard Knox does a great job of laying out the difference between, and the debate about, the safety of the new scanners.

The TSA blog posted video – and the original radio interview – concerning a young woman who claims she was cuffed to a chair at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport.

This fellow caused a hubbub at San Diego International Airport by refusing the pat-down after deciding to opt-out of the scanning machine.

And there’s a group trying to organize Opt Out Day at airports nationwide on November 24, 2010.

Study up. Things are just going to get curiouser from here…