Survey: Do you favor the use of whole-body scanners?

by Charlie Leocha on June 2, 2009

Please complete a quick survey about your views on the usage of whole-body scanners at security checkpoints at U.S. airports. These new scanners show anatomical details as small “as the sweat on your back.” CLICK HERE TO TAKE THE SURVEY.

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Tagged as: whole-body scanners

  • Joe

    It’s not a very scientific survey, is it? The questions are clearly designed to lead one to a negative view of scanners.

    Whoever wrote these questions should be ashamed: She or he is not seeking knowledge, but rather is trying to undermine a useful and efficient scanning system.

    As for myself, I look forward to having these scanners in every airport.

  • Hapgood

    This is a misleading and dubious survey. While I believe the scanners are an invasion of privacy and I’m not comfortable with it, I would be willing to accept it under particular circumstances. Specifically, I object to the use of strip searches on all passengers, which is essentially what the TSA is proposing to do. But I think it would be appropriate to use the strip search scanner for secondary screening, where there is at least some reasonable suspicion to justify the invasion of privacy. That’s a subtle but important distinction the survey does not address.

    If all passengers are going to be strip searched, I think it should happen only after Congress has officially weighed in on the balance between privacy and (supposed) security. The TSA should never have the authority to make such a fundamental change to society merely by making a decision in secret.

  • BunnyFaber

    I agree with Joe, these questions were skewed to get a negative results.

    However, I refuse to ever enter one of those scanners. Ever. I despise being treated as a criminal at the airport. If the TSA wants me to feel safer they will let me sit in the cockpit with a pistol and a stun gun.

  • speidi

    Frank? Is that you???

  • kiki d

    i agree–futuristic scanners is a small price to pay for safety

  • jim

    I have read that the folks “reading” the scan cannot see you because they are in a separate room. So why should you feel anything? It’s not like you will be seeing these people everyday.

  • Carrie Charney

    I object to these scanners and all the rest of the useless invasions of our privacy that we have to endure.

  • Mary H

    On our march toward a fascist state…….of course i don’t want my body scanned….but what i think will make no difference in the end….history has to run its course….and america is no different from cambodia, china, germany, the mongol empire…..
    people will accept anything to put off the day they are sent to the trail of tears, the gas chamber, the killing fields, the rural re-education camps…….. so scan or not scan, we are sheeple and not willing to resist, especially when the ones shoving us around are corporate types whose names and faces we don’t know and that have a good grasp of technology and how it can be used to turn us into a slave state…..but maybe i look too far afield for comparables….sorry if that is so…but i think we need more big picture thinking in this country…….a little survey means nothing….sorry to say….

  • Carlo

    It doesn’ t matter if the person looking at the scan image is right there with me or in another room far, far away. They’re still looking at a virtual naked me. Who cares if my face is attached or not? It’s still my body. That’s something I reserve for my spouse and my doctor (when necessary). For anyone else, it’s a gross violation of my privacy. I don’t think engaging in air flight constitutes probable cause for the kind of search that is that much a violation of a person’s privacy. The fact that there is even this much controversy ought to say something. But I guess most folks will just roll over and take this one too.

  • http://go4thebest.biz Ivy Istok

    Is it only on doing when people travel out? how about those coming in to the USA?
    are they also being scan like this as well?

  • http://www.tripso.com/author/leocha Charlie Leocha

    These machines are being tested in 19 airports across America right now. I believe, some are in use in Amsterdam and London as well as in the Green Zone in Bagdad.

  • Janet

    OMG. There is no way I would enter one of these. I’m so tired of being used as a control group for the airlines. Let’s see: I fly 80+k miles a year, I’m a middle aged female who follows every law possible and has never even had a traffic ticket. Sure I won’t meet the person who sees me naked, but frankly I don’t want anyone to see me naked. And another thing is this secondary search at the gate. Are you telling me you can’t get it right the first time?

  • mommafrica

    What do u think he/she is really looking for! U married ur wife/husband not only b/c they’re intelligent (I hope), but b/c they looked-& continue to look-good. Now that TSA person wants to see what ur wife/husband looks like as well. For ex: my other & I were flying out of STL 2 wks ago. There were 2 female TSA workers working the check-point. They were blatantly talking about how they were checking out a male passenger from a far for awhile & wondering about “what he really looked like” & what kind of woman he was travelling with. In other words, I don’t believe that security will be the topic of the day w/ these scanners.

  • Frank

    Janet said And another thing is this secondary search at the gate. Are you telling me you can’t get it right the first time?
    =====================================================

    Screening passengers is not 100 percent effective so we cant depend on any single security measure to be fail proof. Many layers of security form a more effective system.

  • Cliff Woodrick

    I am 75 years young and I set off the alarm everytime that I pass through the portal. I get patted down, have to remove my belt and suspenders and almost lost my pants once. I walk with a cane, have a steel hip, shapnel in the right leg and do not care if someone can get their jollies from seeing my body. If this happened, I would be happy.

    Have a wonderful day – Cliff

  • Bill

    I didn’t feel the questions were very balanced.

    I don’t like the current system, it is a pain in the butt. I also suspect a lot gets through that shouldn’t.

    I wouldn’t like the full body scanning just for something to do for the heck of it, but if I can walk through something that everyone else walks through too – and there is a pretty good assurance that nothing will get through then I’m all for it. The maintenance staff, catering staff and flight crews can go through them too.

    Right now, I feel there is a greater risk of my laptop being stolen, I’m walking somewhere that probably people with a lot of foot diseases are also walking through, and I suspect a lot of stuff isn’t getting caught.

  • Kina

    I’m just gonna hold off on flying for a while and wait for all these body scan pictures to show up on a web page somewhere. I have no doubt that one of the “professionals” at TSA will soon start a page posting your “secure” images that they gurantee “won’t be saved’ and the big lawsuit ensues. Yes, Americans are too quick to roll over and surrender their human rights just cause someone says “Trust us, this is for your own good”. But let’s see how long these machines stick around after someone finds out they have been violated. Wait till someone sees a picture of their daughter’s or wife’s body scan online, with some pithy caption underneath it.

  • Janet

    Frank, do you really think a secondary search at the gate is something that could be effective? It’s so easy to beat (just wait until someone is being checked before you board) and is just an annoyance. Don’t you think anyone who is carrying weapons doesn’t know this? It’s eyewash and delays the boarding process.

  • John

    Kina … First, look at the pictures you’d never know it was you. Secondly, are you going to stop going to the bank? They have information that they could post about you too. How about work? Do you want to bet HR has some “yummy” facts in your file they could publish?

    Be scared if you want. There are lots of places in this world where people can publish embarassing facts about you with your name one them. TSA can’t put your name on the scan because they won’t know its you even if someone takes a cellphone pic.

  • Kina

    Well John, I suppose the difference would be that I CHOSE to share my personal info with the bank , my employer, and my HR dept. If I went to a bank and the teller were treating me like a criminal, I would not bank there, but I have no choice about who I deal with at TSA, and they don’t exactly have a reputation for hiring the most professional individuals.
    I wouldn’t say that I am the one who is scared, since it is the public’s fear of terrorism that has made my fellow travelers more than willing to roll over and surrender their rights to their own privacy.

    Besides, my bank never asked to see me naked.

    So please, John, send me a picture of your private parts. You don’t have to include a pic of your face. All I need is a shot of your “JUNK” so I can post it to my facebook page and all my friends can discuss it. Don’t worry, nobody will know it’s you, so it won’t mean anything. I have only your best interest at heart..

  • Belle

    I hope congress will forbid this as primary screening device!!
    It should never become mandatory. In Germany it’s been forbidden altogether because ” body scanners are against human dignity”
    also you still can hide explosives in body cavities and it won’t show on body scanners. So what’s next? Stool samples?

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