I am in the “opt out” category. So if I opt out, then my daughter opts out. So she gets by free and clear or cannot fly?

Either way, I don’t exactly want someone patting me down while my daughter watches.

Your 8yr old daughter is exempt from pat downs. Kids under 12 are not subject to physical pat downs.

Simply enough if 2 people are getting scanned, then person 1 gets scanned and the image is temporarily stored to analyze, then person 2 gets scanned and the scanned image of person 2 replaces the scanned image from person 1. Ideally there should be at most one image in the scanner at the end of the day if the images are not being stored.
If this process is the case then seeing multiple images on the internet implies that there is a problem with our airport security because multiple airports are leaking their final image to the public.
If the process is not the case, then one can conclude that a lot more information is being stored than the TSA wants you to know.

If the images are being stored, then security can easily add your driver’s license/passport information to the stored image…

I am glad that I got some international travel in myself before the scanners became part of our society.

I really hope that the airlines tank. We really don’t need more checkpoints in our society. What is next? Buses?

To be honest, I am now expecting the next terrorist attack to be in the security lines. Terrorists typically pick targets that either have high kills or high impact on mental states. With the long waits in line there is definitely both.

1. There are already horrifying incidences of how a woman who is a rape survivor got trigerred by a pat down and how the TSA refused to assign a female agent for her: http://pncminnesota.wordpress.com/2010/11/08/rape-survivor-devasted-by-tsa-enhanced-pat-down/
2. and there’s also an incident of a 9 year old boy being scared by a TSA agent who targeted him for a pat down even after he went through a scanner: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showpost.php?p=26798164&postcount=6
3. Not to mention how violating this is to the rights of transgender people travelling. I can’t imagine the level of trans and gender fail that could take place as a result of TSA agents (the majority of whom I’m guessing like the wider population, don’t give much thought to trans issues) being able to see genitalia of all passengers.

It’s an outrageous violation of bodily autonomy rights and I hope US citizens stand up to end this.

Are you people who oppose this so fiercely the same people who go to the doctor and refuse to have a physical exam? Those patients crack me up.

However I keep seeing stories of how there are big holes in the system, and unauthorized people getting through, and concerned whistleblowers getting badly treated for telling the truth.

It makes me think this is all just a bad approach to securing the system, and the indignities aren’t getting results.

The only reason why we fly is because we have to!!!

I am court-ordered to bring my daughter to NC for her father’s visitation(since the judge made the child do the traveling, ridiculous!)

Otherwise, I wouldn’t go through any of this to get on a plane.

It’s such a violation and what does this teach children? That its okay to be touched?

DISGUSTING!!!!

Machine turns on at check through and detonates on plane. How exactly would it be detected by scanners.

The Israelis do not use scanners. Anyone think that they are not targets of terrorists?

How about this. A prosthetic leg? Find suicide bomber. Amputate leg. Make artificial leg using C4. And I thought of all of this just now on the spur of the moment. If it is this simple for me, I suspect that is why 50% of all attempts by private companies to smuggle “dangerous” items through succeed. Or how about this. 5 terrorists, 5 bottles at 15 oz each and you have a pint of HE.

But wait. those scanners can actually detect all of this with hidden secrete gov technology about which we are ignorant. And invented and built by santas elves working as subcontractors for Haliburton (Dick Cheney inc.) And Haliburton gets a nice gov check and pays the elves in cookies.

Oh, and good luck driving to Hawaii.

But the rest, including the one with the middle-aged woman with a gun on her rear hip:
http://trueslant.com/jeffkoyen/files/2009/05/airport_xray_scanner-thumb.jpg
… do not look nearly as explicit as that one when inverted. I now suspect that the image in the first one is bogus – it’s probably just a positive inverted and otherwise photoshopped to look like a scanned image.

That’s not how they’re being used in my experience, though. I’ve been through the scanners twice, once at Charlotte Douglas and once at Boston Logan. Both times, they were putting everyone from the security line through the scanner (but only 1 or 2 lines had scanners, so the rest were the usual magnetometer). That’s the worst of both worlds.

Also, I’m 6’4″ and the scanners aren’t tall enough for me. Both times I had to get my arms patted down even after the scanner because they make you raise them above your head. What a dumb design choice! Also, even though you just got scanned, apparently you’re not allowed to do anything like put your hands in your pockets. That also earned me an extra pocket pat-down. Stupid security theater.

The list of places terrorists could kill a lot of people and have a highly damaging psychological effect is not a short one.

Indeed. And the fact that they haven’t done so more often makes me suspect that their capabilities are somewhat more limited than we have been led to believe.

My January blog about the subject:
http://www.jonathanblaine.com/wpress/2010/01/us-and-canadian-governments-doing-a-bang-up-job-marketing-dubious-security-at-airports/

If you want a laugh about this whole thing — that is not too far from the truth in the US — watch this from Rick Mercer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwsVi9ULwLI

Outrageous, sure, by all means, you can stay home and see things here over and over. Im going to keep traveling often like I do and if I have to be patted down by some miserable, grumpy minimum wage dude for 30 seconds to get on my plane to Nice, France then so be it because I want to go and will go.

On a practical note, I cannot understand why the units cannot be designed to isolate objects and remove the body image programatically.

Unfortunately, genital pat downs are not new. It has been done frequently for many years now. Ever see a curtain off area next to the security area. That’s where it happens. My father who traveled internationally and domestically on business were frequently subject to genital pat downs. It was blood-boiling to hear how he was somehow “randomly chosen” again from his business trips. If you were wondering, my father is 100% Asian. (korean)

I never believed that the back scattering images can be secure. all it takes is a TSA agent with a cell phone camera. Or a eager person with a mirror and a zoom capable camcorder. How do you safe guard against that ?

I want to see members of congress and their families, all the TSA agents and their families get pat down and/or get their naked picture taken my the scanners. But I am naive to believe that they travel on via commercial airlines, huh ?

Speaking of children, do they pat down the children too? They Have to. what if a bomb is attached to a child? It is government sanctioned groping of children or production of child pornography. When every child in all the airports get genital patted down by grown men or women. Or get their naked picture taken. Of course, the parents will have to watch all this happening or face a $10,000 fine per refusal. This may sound extreme but think about it.

It is wrong when my father had to go through it all those years. And it is wrong now.

In short, what problem is being solved with this silly procedure?