Whole-body scan survey results

by Charlie Leocha on June 3, 2009

Yesterday’s survey results (admittedly unscientific, but revealing none-the-less):

1. Do you favor the use of whole-body scanners that can “see through your clothes” at airport security?
Yes: 39.5% No: 60.5%

2. Would you feel comfortable being virtually strip searched whenever boarding an airplane? (The scanners in use will have the ability to see details down to the “sweat on your back.”)
Yes: 37.1% No: 62.9%

3. Would you feel comfortable having your spouse virtually strip searched each time she/he boarded an airplane?
Yes: 37.7% No: 62.3%

4. Do you feel that whole-body scans that show details down to a drop of sweat on your back are a violation of your privacy?
Yes: 67.2% No: 32.8%

5. Are you male or female?
Male: 49.6%
Female: 50.4%

6. Age?
Younger than 21: 0.4%
22-30: 4.8%
31-40: 14.3%
41-50: 15.2%
50+: 65.4%

Total respondents: 232 (not all respondents answered every question)

The House is currently scheduled to vote on H.R. 2027 Thursday (tomorrow) on a measure that will ban the use of whole-body scanners as the primary screening method. The machines will still be allowed, however, only if the current metal detectors indicate a possible problem and passengers will be given the option to bypass them for a pat-down search.

This bill will be voted on as an amendment to the TSA authorization bill, H.R. 2200. It has been offered by Reps. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, and Carol Shea-Porter, D-N.H.

Send your congressman or congresswoman your thoughts. It is easy.
CLICK TO REGISTER YOUR VOICE.

Urge them to vote FOR the “Chaffetz amendment on Whole Body Imaging” to H.R. 2200, the TSA authorization bill.

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Tagged as: TSA, virtual strip search, whole-body scanners

  • Pingback: Papers, Please! » Blog Archive » Congress to vote on virtual strip searches

  • John

    What a shock? A survey written with a bias produced a biased result! Why not just put “strip search” and leave out the virtual part. Better yet. How about “Do you feel comfortable having a member of the TSA see a digital picture of you basically naked with the possiblity of putting it on the internet?”

    Umm how many people are going to answer no?

    Come on Charlie. You can do better than this. If your point is that good, you can make it with out the bias.

  • Father Goose

    The 37+% that replied yes to being strip searched are exhibitionist. So, of course they don’t mind people looking at them naked!

  • Kina

    John, I don’t see it as biased, I see it as pretty straighforward:

    Do YOU feel comfortable having a member of the TSA see a digital picture of you basically naked with the possiblity of putting it on the internet?

  • John

    Kina … words like “virtually strip searched” and your “spouse virtually strip searched” are biased. They are used to generate emotion and guide your answer. That induces bias. Your answer is preselected.

    I could induce bias by asking … would you submit to a new TSA scanner where policies guarantee your privacy and would guarantee that 9/11 like terroist terrorist could never get a weapon through security.

    Umm …only an idiot would say no. Eventhough I left out valuable information (like how much people see) and used emotion to guide your answer.

    There was no reason to include virtual strip search and sweat running down your back (thermal scanners already used at check points for health scares can do the same thing).

  • Tvl_Dreamer

    Is it a fact these pictures can easily be put on the internet or someone’s worse fear? What stops a bank from putting screen-shots of everyone’s account actviity on the itnernet? or a doctor’s office putting up your medical records? Why are people that are afraid of living on the grid even flying? I will bet money the TSA requires IDs and passwords to access the system.

    Maybe people aren’t exhibitionist, but aren’t so hung up on their own body image? Sorry, but one xray image of a body is pretty much the same as another. All shapes and sizes, but still pretty much the same.

    When I’m going through security, there are a dozen security lines open in the airport. To process everyone through timely, I just can’t believe TSA is going to take the time to stop reviewing all the incoming xrays (stopping everyone in line) to copy and discuss one image.

  • Alan

    Hmmm… Let’s see now… 32% – 39% thought it would be fine… Even with the poor wording (bias)…

    But let’s look at the demographics a little closer…

    If you add up all the people UNDER 50, you get 34.7%… Coincidence??

    I am willing to bet that most folks UNDER 50 probably couldn’t care less if someone saw their naked body on a screen for a moment or two…

    I would also like to have seen these questions asked FIRST (and naming the survey “Security checks at airports” – instead of something about whole body scans)

    1) Do you feel that metal detectors and baggage scanners are an invasion of your privacy?

    2) Do you feel violated by being pulled out of line for a random pat down and complete carry on bag search, even after you went through the detectors without problems?

    3) Do you think that metal detectors are good enough for screening out most/all weapons, including the new ones made mainly of plastic?

    THEN start asking about the whole body scanners…

    It’s all in how/what you ask…

  • BunnyFaber

    Let’s re-write those questions to get a different answer..

    1. Are you willing to participate in a technologically advanced screening method that ensures safer air travel for everybody?

    2. Do you hate babies, widows and America SO MUCH that you would refuse to participate in a technologically advanced screening method that is COMPLETELY HARMLESS? As if you were some kind of TERRORIST?

    etc.

  • Anonymous1

    The survey results would be much different if people were given THE FACTS.
    First, and foremost, sensetive areas of the body, from a privacy perspective, would be corrected to hide any telling detail. Also the person doing the scan would not be the person viewing the image, so they wouldn’t be able to “put your image on the internet”. Even if they could (which they can’t) the image amounts to a standing posed body with no facial distinguishment possible, and color added.
    This doesn’t exactly scream “identifiable” or “interesting” as either the person in the picture, or as someone who would look at such an image. In other words, this is mainly about hypersensetivity, paranoia, and a lack of facts. Grow up.
    It probably should only be used for secondary screening, just from a practical perspective, but let’s stop the misleading context please.

  • Louise

    How much radiation in a body scan? I know, just a teensy-weensy bit added to all the other teensy -weensy bits in our lives. How much invasion of privacy? I know, just a teensy-weensy bit . . . .

  • Cliff Woodrick

    I would rather be scanned than getting patted down because my steel hip and shapnel trigger the portal scanner. Frankly at my age, I don’t give a damm if someone looks at the scan and gets a charge. So the question is what is worst – a scan or a patdown after I remove my suspenders and belt – then try to hold up my pants with one hand while walking with a cane with the other going through the magnetic portal.

    I vote for a scan and I am not an exhibitionist as Father Goose claims. Do not call names until you walk in my shoes.

    Thank you and have a wonderful day – Cliff

  • kimberly

    I don’t have a clue why people are so bugged about this. The TSA guards are going to be so bored looking at 10,000 bodies why would they give a “flip” what’s under my clothes. People are waaaaayyyyy too sensitive about this. I think it will be a LOT less invasive and less time consuming than having people ask me to take off this, take off that and where’s my doctor’s waiver for my knee implant or whatever….(no I don’t have a knee replacement but I know a LOT of people that do).

    I personally think this survey is REALLY bias considering the greatest percentage are people over 50 that came from an era where they tend to be more private about something like this.

    I’d MUCH rather have something like this because I don’t belive the current scanners are accurate enough to keep terrorists off the plane.

  • Tim

    kimberly–if the current scanners are not accurate enough to keep terrorists off of planes, then how come we have had a dearth of terrorist attacks on airplanes? Even thinking over the last 8 years, I can think of about 6 planes that were subjected to terrorist attacks. Out of the millions of planes flying during those 8 years, that is an extremely low percentage.

    And of those 6, four of those were taken over by using weapons that were allowed on the airplanes–so no matter what security hardware was in place, the weapons would have been allowed.

    While we should figure out something to help find real weapons (like explosives), I am betting these scanners are going to be a real pain for me–the magnetometers rarely pick up on the fact that I wear an insulin pump–the scanner will show it up every time, leading to more questions and delays than I want.

  • Hapgood

    There is also the problem that our pockets have to be completely emptied before entering the scanner, so the view of our naked bodies isn’t blocked by wallets, keys, money, or whatever. It’s currently possible to carry a wallet in a pocket through the metal detector without any problem, as long as anything metallic is removed first. But that’s no longer possible with the scanner. The wallet has to go in a bin or in a carry-on bag. That brings a new risk of losing identity papers while we’re separated from them during the strip search, which is far more devastating than the loss or theft of any other belongings. This is a far more serious and troubling concern than any loss of privacy, but the TSA seems to completely ignoring it.

  • someone

    Exactly, Hapgood! Didn’t I see something on this site recently that most thefts at airports happen at the security checkpoints? A few years ago my mother–in-law had her purse stolen at the “security” checkpoint at LAX. With all the wallets that would also be going into the bins, the temptation for thieves is going to be even greater.

  • Hapgood

    someone, that’s one of the TSA’s major failings. They have an extremely narrow definition of “security” as “preventing a repeat of 9/11.” So everything they inflict on us is intensely focused on the aim of protecting us from a very devastating but extremely rare threat. They therefore completely ignore all other aspects of security that involve protecting passengers and their belongings from unspectacular but very common threats.

    The TSA’s screening processes increase the risk of theft. Checked bags have to be unlocked so that screeners can easily open them when their high-technology x-ray alarms (often due to a false positive, since the machines can’t distinguish between explosives and books). And the stressful distractions of screening at checkpoints (plus the need to “separate” belongings for ease of inspection) make carry-ons particularly vulnerable to theft.

    Now they want to increase the risk of identity theft by separating passengers from their wallets during the strip search. Since this has nothing to do with terrorism, the TSA is oblivious to the problem. It’s outside their mission, so it doesn’t matter. But the consequences to individual passengers can be devastating.

    Any “security” system that actually increases the risk of theft, loss, or damage to passengers’ property can only be called a failure. And the fact that the TSA doesn’t care makes that failure a disaster.

  • Paulette Baker

    I’m with you, John. The questions are highly biased and couched in terms that are designed to cause a knee-jerk negative reaction. I’m female and pro these machines, and even I found myself reacting to the questions instead of thinking about the issues represented.

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