An update in the procedures on conducting full-body scans at airport security checkpoints suggests that passengers may still have to go through Advanced Imaging Technologies (AIT) screening as a mandatory requirement.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently updated the AIT protocols that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had implemented at several airports in the United States. The change deals with how travelers may be forced to be subjected through the controversial screening even though they have opted-out of the process.
Bruce Anderson, a TSA spokesman, said that passengers will still be allowed to decline a full body screening and opt instead to go through physical screening, Digital Trends reported. However, there are some passengers who, for security reasons, may still be required to undergo a full-body screening.
In other words, the TSA can choose who's going through the machines and who can be spared. While the company stressed that the procedure is needed in order to safeguard transportation security, they have somehow failed to clarify the criteria for classifying passengers who needed a thorough security-check.
Body scanners at the airports are sometimes seen by travelers as an intrusion to one's privacy, SlashGear reported. Concerns such as being seen naked and then storing the results into the system as photographs were just some of the few reasons why travelers wanted to opt-out of the process.
The updated document also stressed that the scanners do not in any way store or transmit captured graphics after they are used by the travelers. They are simply shown on a nearby display until inspection agents would decide to conduct a physical check on a certain area.
The nudity issue, which is indeed possible with the earlier version of the scanners, is now a thing of the past as claimed by the DHS. Instead of registering the individual's image, the newer system only reproduces a generic figure.
Anderson stressed that while the scans can be mandatory to some passengers, it won't affect the vast majority of those who are traveling. If an enhanced screening is required, which is expected to occur under a sporadic number of circumstances, only then will the airport security officials would feel compelled to conduct a full-body scan.