Backlash on Backscatter

By Elisabeth Salemme

Are new airport x-ray machines going to detect more than just concealed weapons? Yes, says the American Civil Liberties Union, which likens the new backscatter technology to a digital strip search. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will launch the device this month at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport as part of an antiterrorism test program. Backscatter penetrates clothes but not skin, exposing the outline of the body along with any objects being carried. The TSA's version is filtered to make faces and intimate parts indistinguishable (see photo above). Initially, it will be used only if travelers fail a primary screening and decline a pat-down search, says TSA spokeswoman Amy Kudwa. Though the machines are not capable of storing, printing or saving images, and scans are deleted as a passenger steps away from the device, there's still a chance pictures could be exploited and appear on the Internet, says A.C.L.U. privacy expert Jay Stanley. He also thinks backscatter is immodest. "Some people are ashamed to expose even their arms or their shins," says Stanley. In Phoenix they might have to drive.