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The measures taken to screen people at airports are getting a bit ridiculous. The government is already working on ways to determine whether you’re a terrorist based on scent alone, but in the meantime, they can just take a look at a computer image of your naked body. They don’t even take you to the airport bar and buy you drinks first. Larry Craig had more polite airport manners than this.
Last week, the New York Times‘ Joe Sharkey ran a column about the TSA’s new full-body imaging machines currently in the testing phase at 19 airports across America, including Miami International. The machines use millimeter wave scanning technology to map out a rough image of a person’s naked body to make sure they have no contraband on their person. We’re not talking Playboy-quality images here, but the results can be embarrassing enough. Originally the machines were to be used only on highly suspect passengers, but the TSA has since begun to use them on regular passengers as well.
This week, Sharkey follows up with a horror story from Laura Holmes Joost, a Miami Beach real estate investor who was unknowingly screened at M.I.A.
“When I figured out what happened, I felt violated,” she said. “I don’t
want some stranger looking at a naked picture of me in the next room.
It’s a gross invasion of my right to privacy.”
The TSA swears it’ll eventually get around to removing the machines’ ability to store images, but if the thought of your computer-generated n00dz being perused by some strangers isn’t enough, just imagine if those images ever got out.
