Privacy Issues Arise With New Airport Scanners

In a move to insure further the security of the flying public the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is installing a new generation of 38 scanners in 10 of the nations airports beginning in the late spring of 2008. The new scanners are state of the art and are capable of seeing through the clothing of the passengers being scanned. Critics of the new devices are expressing concerns for the privacy of the public because the new machines are capable of producing very detailed images of an individuals body which may cause embarrassment and lead to concerns about privacy and abuse of the technology on the part of airport workers. The TSA is attempting to reassure the public by stating that the images that will be taken will have both the faces and the private parts of each individual scan blurred and that the images once they are checked for weapons and cleared will be deleted.