Full body scans that reveal a lot of unwanted detail have been anticipated in the news for some time. Now the scanners are finally in place at over sixty American airports, the backlash has already begun. Leading the charge is an Internet protest against the invasive scanning technology. So what does it mean for you and your New York holidays, or the rest of the American holidays you take from now?
In the last decade, air passengers have seen an ever growing list of travelling restrictions and security procedures. The problem it seems, is that the day of simple hijackings are at an end. The level of security passengers have been used to have been a fabulous deterrent to attempting to bring planes down from the inside. Pilots have also been armed and cockpits reinforced to make hijacking even less likely. The problem, as has been shown by a number of recent scares, has instead become the potential of small or hard to detect explosive devices being smuggled aboard planes.
Full body scans are intended to not only detect such devices, but they’re also a lot speedier as a by product. But privacy legitimately matters to passengers. The X-Ray technology effectively allows operators to see everything under a passenger’s clothing. There are also substantial health concerns. Passengers are allowed to refuse to comply with entering the scanner, but they must submit to a new, more thorough patdown procedure as a consequence. This search is perhaps equally invasive, and involves contacts in the same areas the passenger probably objected to being seen in the first place. Most people don’t really see it as essential to enjoying their Florida holidays. Half of the passengers subjected to the patdown suggested that it ‘went too far’ in a recent survey.
It is worth mentioning though, that only 2 percent of the 2 million passengers travelling daily through US airports are actually subjected to the search. It would seem that you don’t have to be on your Las Vegas holidays to play the percentages. But perhaps when all is said and done, the procedure is worth the peace of mind.
