The Transportation Security Administration has deployed millimeter wave passenger imaging technology to nearly 20 airports around the country on a pilot basis.
Above is a bare-bones look, from the TSA, at how fully clothed passengers might appear in 3-D to screeners.
It's a passenger-screening methodology that Joe Sharkey's High Anxiety blog terms "the TSA Strip Search Machines."
Imagine how you or your children might look to TSA screeners if the images above were to be enlarged.
The TSA claims it won't save the images, but one can only imagine the possibilities for abuse.
It's a tough issue. Are there better alternatives? Are there safeguards that could be put in place? Will some of these images somehow end up in the tabloids or in some no-fly list somewhere?
Will such an invasion of privacy give people another reason not to travel?
The TSA claims that emission levels from millimeter wave imaging are safe, 10,000 times less than a cellphone transmission. I don't necessarily trust governmental estimates on these sorts of things, however.
A bunch of airports internationally in Europe, Asia and Mexico already are using the technology.
What's your perspective? Leave a comment and let me know.
