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New Airport X-Ray Machines May See Too Much

By Dan Schlossberg
ConsumerAffairs.com

December 4, 2006

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It used to be a joke: could Superman's X-ray vision see through Lois Lane's clothes?

Now, for the first time, millions of air travelers may be asking themselves a similar question as they pass through airport security: new enhanced machines, though much more adept at finding hidden weapons, may also be revealing much more.

That's why the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), wrestling with potential privacy issues, has waited four years to introduce them. That time has come, albeit in a limited test: Phoenix Sky Harbor, the nation's eighth-busiest airport, will get the new "backscatter" machines by year's end and an airport-to-be-named-later will be added to the trial.

At first, the new technology will only be used for passengers who need extra screening or are randomly selected. Those people will be allowed to choose either a pat-down from a TSA official or a scan from the machine, which will photograph them from the front and the back.

In addition to finding more prohibited contraband, the machines have the potential to speed up the security process. That also makes them likely future replacements for the metal detectors now in use.

But privacy issues have to be worked out first. The TSA says the machines are designed to blur body parts while still finding weapons with pinpoint accuracy. But there's also a concern that blurred images might make detection of non-metal weaponry, such as plastic explosives, more difficult.

Backscatter machines, already used by Customs inspectors to search for drugs, are also being considered for big-city train and subway stations.

Before widespread distribution of the technology, however, the TSA wants feedback from Phoenix -- from both security officers and passengers.

The machine coming to the Arizona airport is made by American Science and Engineering of Massachusetts. The TSA is also testing a similar device that uses electromagnetic waves.

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