Security Full-Body Scanners: Invasive? Effective? Both?

USA Today reported last week that Tulsa International Airport has started the use of full-body scanners in security. Passengers could decide whether to be screened in the scanner or through the traditional metal detector.

“The 35-year reign of airport metal detectors began its slow descent this week in Tulsa, where for the first time some passengers are skipping metal detectors,” the story reports. “People are instead being screened in a 9-foot-high portal with glass shields that rotate to produce vivid pictures of what is underneath passengers’ clothing.”

Each scanner costs $170,000 and produces “metallic-looking images” that “show outlines of private body parts and blur passengers’ faces.” It can detect “hidden items as small as a plastic button.”

Obviously, some are concerned about privacy, although the story reported that on a recent busy morning at the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, only two people opted to go through the metal detector instead of the scanner. Another worry is that the full-body scanners could slow down the screening process. (The TSA has more.)

While I can understand privacy concerns, I think these new scanners sound fantastic. All airport security presents a degree of privacy invasion—you sacrifice some of the normal control you have over your body and belongings for what most would agree is a necessary (and, we hope, effective and thorough) procedure before flying. These scanners seem like an amazing step in the right direction.

Here’s a filmmaker’s vision of this kind of security from the 1990 film “Total Recall”:

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