What the TSA's new body scanner images look like
Cool looking photos of the body scanners the TSA is using in airports. Wouldn't this one be a great radioactive extraterrestrial for a scary movie? TSA body scanner images
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Quick, get these to some artists ASAP.
Breasts, penises, and scrotums with not bad resolution either. Comic-book style X-Ray Glasses have arrived, and Big Brother has them.
Wow... I am a woman who travels and although I am not normally shy about my body, I feel greatly violated by this image. My breasts are a personal property and not for anyone else but my husband. What about women who cover up for religious or personal privacy reasons? Are they to be subject to even more invasive searches for protesting such revealing images.
Is that a finger in her right pocket?
Crap. Now they can see my weed.
Are travelers going to have any warnings that they're about to walk through this machine? Will people have any choice; can we opt out? (Insert laugh track here.) Does anyone know?
If not- seriously- I am not flying any more. Either that or I'll tape a big aluminum foil "F- YOU" on my stomach.
Uncle Fester has been to Thailand...?
One other thing I probably should not admit here but... what about those Monday mornings when I run out of the house without any underwear on? What do they see then? I can hear that whole speech from my mother now regarding always wearing clean underwear because you never know who just might see them... boy was that Orwellian motherly advice.
Counting down to when someone begins marketing non-scannable underwear.
I don't understand how this is not an invasion of privacy. Why are ordinary citizens trying to get from Point A to Point B subject to this without any reason?
@#3
I'm an exhibitionist and as such I feel that my personal rights have been violated because the TSA has NOT been able to see my junks for all these years. My penus, scrotal pouch and Quato do not just belong to me. They also belong to those who are qualified to see my junks by way of a high-school diploma and a polyester uniform provided by a fear-mongering government beaurocracy.
Thanks to an adolescence wasted on comic books, I now think that glow-in-the-dark bald chicks are hot. Thank you TSA for making my fantasies come true.
Without getting into whether this measure is necessary or even helpful, I must say that, personally, I'd have no problem walking through one of those for the imagery. It is a lot less graphic than I expected.
If I didn't know what it really was, I would have thought this was a crash test dummy in black light. Do we get a copy of the pics afterwards? ;)
Dr. Manhattan. Paging Dr. Manhattan...
It's Dr. Manhattan's pudgy sister!
That just can't be good for anyone's cell health....
These scans have been photo shopped to de-emphasize the resolution of "camel toe" and "twig and berries". All male "grow-ers" and less endowed "show-ers" will avoid this machine like the plague while the well endowed "show-ers" will be lining up to flaunt what they've got. Radical Mastectomy patients will also not be too keen for the scanner.
#5 Enormo: Just put it in front like a fig leaf. The security people are all Christian, and will therefore let you pass.
There's nothing cool about this.
As I understand it, these are not (currently) intended to be part of the routine for every traveler, unlike the hand-luggage X-Ray units.
Instead, if the TSA decides they're going to strip-search you (because you're vaguely brown, say, or are carrying too many suspicious fluids), you might get a choice of the hands-on zero-roentgens routine, or the hands-off roentgen-enriched routine.
I honestly can't say which offends me more. I couldn't give a fart about them seeing my Glowing Blue Avatar - I want to know who's paying attention to how many of these scans frequent fliers are going through? My dentist is sure as hell interested in making sure I don't get too many x-rays of my head in a year, and this is a whole body dose.
These scans have been photo shopped to de-emphasize the resolution of "camel toe" and "twig and berries".
Oh, well in that case, I can see some people having problems with it. Plus with the types they hire in airport security, I don't know what's more gross between having them looking at naked pictures of you or touching you. Tough choice.
This is getting ridiculous. Why do we have to be punished by having out bodies displayed for retarded TSA officials to drool over just because we're using air travel? Its not going to catch a single terrorist, just give the TSA another scandal to spend our tax dollars on covering their asses for it.
What country can I move to where this crap isn't tolerated?
So which is it neocons? Either we reverse our nation's course of becoming a police state, or TSA gets to see (and most certainly save & share photos online) of your tiny shriveled dicks. Decisions, decisions.
Wow. I have mixed feelings. On the one hand this will cut down on false alarms and increase security. On the other this is amazingly invasive. If this is ever put into practice, it needs to be monitored off-site by mixed gender guards.
Yeah, I'm sure a few of women will have problems knowing their breasts( and tummies) will be virtually fully exposed; but a lot of women aren't going to be happy with cleft of their labial folds exposed. So who's wearing some jewelry downtown?
I see an upsurge in the cock ring market.
screw mixed gender guards, this should only be monitored by sexless eunuch androids. Otherwise, it qualifies as sexual harassment, which I feel it is.
The TSA just confiscated my 50 million year old shark's tooth. Naturally, being a shark tooth it was sharp but I packed it in my checked-in luggage. Being a fossil it was stone and so posed no biological threat. I didn't find out it had gone until I got home. They just removed it without any explanation. I don't understand why they would do that. It wasn't worth anything but I loved it and thought it was fascinating.
Well, I guess I'll have to drive to Europe now.
"...it needs to be monitored off-site by mixed gender guards."
Where do you recruit a mixed gender guard?
And if you do hire one, how will s/he take it when an irate passenger tells her/him to go f**k her/himself?
Literally, I hope.
I'm with CLAIRMONDE. This, yet another example of security theater, exposes for the sake of exposure. The TSA goons will have a field day with this infernal device.
If I remember correctly, that particular image appeared in news stories about 12 months ago, and is actually of a senior TSA official who was demonstrating the equipment.
Despite the claims that the images cannot be saved, I will give it about three days at most from the time the machines are first deployed until pictures (real or faked) of named celebrities start appearing online. Followed by any number of pictures of random members of the public with unusually good (or bad) figures.
I should register "scannerporn.com" and "tsaporn.com" now and make my fortune.
Odd that with all that they should be using such tiny little monitor screens! I want a pic of me in this for facebook!
mixed gender guards? you mean like they had at Abu Graib? little people with too much power suck, whatever the gender.
The irony of course, is that if you rocked up to the scanner butt naked, you'd get arrested for indecent exposure :)
I saw this eighteen years ago. Arnold Schwarzenegger crashed through one in TOTAL RECALL.
I think there is only one reasonable response.
Glue a couple of plastic baby doll parts to my torso for that elegant "Hideous Malformed Vestigial Twin" look.
That should wake them up!
Even Matt Drudge had this a year ago.
this is wrong, palin and simple. this is not too far from a strip search as far as myself and many other people are concerned. this also is exposing people to unnecessary radiation, and does not pick up things that are keester/vagina stashed. what is wrong with a good ol' metal detector?
next thing you know we will all have to take a polygraph pre-flight...and have to fly naked. but it is all in the interest of public safety!
Wait! I'm on a roll!
I'm thinking plastic squid penis sheath:
http://www.tapirback.com/tapirgal/gifts/friends/aquatic/squid-giant-plastic-f815.htm
If that showed up in somebody's pants in a TSA scan it would clear the building. Woo Hoo!
why nobody thought this time about protecting the children?? Pederasts and all kind of degenerates will be eager to protecting us!!
"this is wrong, palin and simple."
A telling little typo, Wrathofthekitty!
@ MERCURYTRANSIT
I didn't find out it had gone until I got home. They just removed it without any explanation.
I believe this is called theft, not confiscation.
The same thing happened to my camera 5 years ago. Guess they were 'overzealous'...
They say these things aren't saved, but they also said they weren't mass-tapping our phones, and TSA guards aren't known for being the most conscientious and ethical of government thugs. I'm sure there is a way to save these images, and I'm sure they will be.
Beyond the gross invasion of privacy and disgusting use of fear mongering as the justification for absolutely anything no matter how egregious, it's not just going to be celebrities who are likely to see their nude and glowing bald form showing up on the internet.
What about the disabled? Or those who have had mastectomies, like #17 pointed out? Or intersex and trans people? Those who by accident, disease or genetic predisposition have bodies that do not look typical under clothing?
Just by virtue of wanting to travel to a country that is not Mexico or Canada, one not only risks being humiliated by TSA guards, but the possibility that the images will later appear on 4Chan.
This doesn't feel like new news. In fact that specific image seems eeeerily familiar. Let's see if I can find an older reference to it... ah yeah, the same image was shown a lot back when trey were considering using these scanners (backscatter X-Ray) on the UK's railway stations. Think that idea was shelved though...
The other images you see in that article (the one with the fuzzed out face) are millemetre-wave.
The TSA reckons it's OK for unidentified men to look at these high res naked pics of your children, so long as those pics are displayed in another room, so they can't connect the child to a real person unless they talk to other TSA people (OK, they were the only child on the plane, but still... OK, they were the only one with only one arm... or whatever your daughter's distinguishing feature is). They also promise the pictures won't be saved.
Way I see it, the system could easily pay for itself: pedophiles to pay to sit at these scanners, and give them a discount for every forbidden item they detect.
I suspect that "think of the children" won't be a good way to combat these, though: they'll just put a "you need to be this tall to ride this scanner" sign on, then say "there, kids are safe!"
While the pedos continue to pay them to ogle your 16 yearold daughter...
I have two solutions to this. One is tattooing "F*** All Airport Staff With Lebanese Cucumbers" on your tummy with some kind of ink that's opaque to these x-rays. The other is for all men to slip in to the toilet just before you go through the scanner, have a tug and then walk through the scanner with as turgid a hard-on as you can possibly muster. Take viagra if necessary, it's not for pleasure, it's for freedom!
They'll soon stop using the machines.
I keep waiting to wake up and realize that it was all just a really long distopia dream.
They have been showing similar scanners on the news for several years. As I recall due to these types of complaints they added a filter in that is applied prior to the image showing on the screen. This is the "photoshopping" mentioned by #17 and is done prior to the TSA goon seeing the image. The filter automatically covers breasts and privates with the equivalent of a swimsuit.
On the other hand I'm sure there is a way around this filter if someone is smart enough. And if the image is displayed on a windows computer then the "no image is saved" promise is a policy not a fact as we all now how easy screenshots are on a PC.
I heard that the Terrorists have now given up "hating us for our freedoms", as they couldn't find them anymore.
The best way to deal with this is to get a bunch of naturists (or people happy to become naturists for the day) and travel through the airport screening gates naked.
Who's willing to give it a go?
Won't you know it, some TSA thug's going to start visibly jerking off to female passengers. Then they'll say "You're being sexually assaulted for freedom!" and we as sheep will just go ahead. I like the "get a hardon" approach. Can't wait till I see these.
ditto on 14 and 15
What RAD does that machine put out? I understand it's not going to be used like a metal detector on every passanger... until it's cost effecient. After that you know it will be. and the radiation airline staff is bad enough at 30k feet this is only going add to the absorbed dose. Low kVp machines like those will have low pentration and a higher BERT value because of it. The lens of your eye is one of the most radiosensitive organs and will pretty much absorb all those photons hitting them.
cotton / fine aluminium mesh underwear carrying a low voltage charge for sale. 50 pairs. get em while they're hot. anyone interested?
Wow, I can't wait to see pix of scanned LiLo and Britney up on TMZ.
I shall never fly again...
@ 53, if the lens of your eye "pretty much absorbs all the photons hitting them," you have cataracts.
For all of you who have no problem with this, I pose this question:
What, exactly, would you have a problem with?
A woman would be arrested if she went topless for indecent exposure so what is this?
The solution to this is remarkably simple:
1. Claim to be concerned about terrorists
2. Buy one of these machines
3. Image 10-year-old boys
4. Post images on internet voyeurism porn site
5. Wait for outrage
6. Ask the obvious questions
I wouldn't call these body scanners "new".
The TSA has had at least one body scanner at each security checkpoint in PHX (Phoenix, AZ, USA) for probably 4 years now.
Also, I flew out of DIA (Denver, CO, USA) today, and 2 of the 6 (maybe 7) security lines had these body scanners directly after the standard metal detector. Passengers could choose which line to wait in, so I purposely avoided the ones with the body scanner, but I saw plenty of people going through them. They've been there since at least Feb 2008, the first time I actually went through security in DIA.
MercuryTransit @28, Sekino's right. They thought your shark's tooth was cool, so they stole it.
Would you like another one?
AngusM @32, given what we know about their other behavior, I see no reason to believe they'll respect the privacy of these images.
Chopp3r @38: And your point is? All it shows is that you're willing to read Matt Drudge.
Tharklord @37, 40: I can't stop giggling every time I think of your suggestions. Good thing I don't have any funerals to attend just now.
"I suspect that "think of the children" won't be a good way to combat these, though: they'll just put a "you need to be this tall to ride this scanner" sign on, then say "there, kids are safe!"
But if protected that way, the children would turn inmediately into machine-guns camels!!
A small walking arsenal inside every Kid!! lol.
Minneapolis St-Paul International Airport was testing millimeter wave radar about three weeks ago. It wasn't set up at the security checkpoints. Instead, it was down in the transit level where you go from parking to ticketing.
That's also where you go to meet your arrivals, even if you're not flying.
I repeat, this was not set up for specific scans of ticketed passengers. This was set up to scan every single person walking through the lower level of the airport.
My question is this:
If this device is "harmless" as everyone says it is, will TSA officials be required to pass through it everyday they are employed? Or will they use the ubiquitous "side-entrance"?
I already know the answer anyways.
This device cannot possibly be harmless.Look at the wavelengths people.
This will lead to some horrible cancers no doubt.
Disgusting.
THIS is freedom?
lukus @50 The best way to deal with this is to get a bunch of naturists (or people happy to become naturists for the day) and travel through the airport screening gates naked. Who's willing to give it a go?
I had the same idea. Organize a mass protest at airports around the country in which people start stripping at the metal detectors. For plausible deniability, they can claim they thoughts that the TSA now required strip searches of all passengers.
If I didn't have a thing about pain and my SO didn't have a dislike of tattoos, I would also consider getting the text of the 4th amendment tattooed on my butt in ink that would show as opaque on an x-ray.
One of the image captions said the face is blurred electronically to protect privacy. Are our naughty bits blurred before the TSA employess see them? I doubt it. Terrorists might hide contraband in their undies.
Is this the same roentgen technology shoe stores used in the 1920's to insure proper fit? That led to a lot of cancer.
Nigel1965 @ 68 - I'm going to take the precaution of blurring my bits before I even approach one of these scanners.
The only thing I have to add is, given the not-so-glamorous history of the airport employee, what's to stop an employee from just recording some of these and throwing them online for the hell of it? Say for a "Greatest Tits" collection...
What's the big deal? The TSA employees are trained professionals. I don't think they would do anything that would risk the privacy of the passengers they are protecting.
As a crew member who goes through security several times a week and also as someone who has a hip replacement (titanium) I rather go through the XRay machine than be subjected to the inconsiderate TSA screeners, who have to courtesy for crew members.
I sometimes wait over ten minutes until a TSA becomes 'available' only to be treated like I am an ignorant traveler.
The main issue here is safety for our skies and our people. Let's not loose sight of that!
the main issue here is a pay check for the unemployable.
I'm thinking messages could be written with zinc oxide (sunblock). Metallic and relatively non-toxic.
Anonymous: "only to be treated like an ignorant traveller"? So, you feel entitled to better treatment than paying travellers for why, exactly? If we get to have these sucky procedures imposed on us, so should everyone in the airport.
What I think is sad is that as far as I know, there is no law that the TSA must be the organisation used to police people at airports. You just have to have a security org, and find an airport willing to take you on. Any other org could do it.
Then again... if it's not the TSA, it'll be Blackwater.
"What country can I move to where this crap isn't tolerated?"
Almost ANY country. It's not tolerated in the EU or Saudi, or Australia, or the UK.
Yesterday I was chosen for "random" screening by a skeezy looking 25 year old agent who eyed me from head to toe first. I didn't have any liquids, any beep of the detector, or any selective screening on my boarding pass. I'm a good looking young business woman who flies about once a week. One agent decided that the TSA needed to see me naked and the power was 100% in that agent's hands to decide. He did not tell me it was optional and only let me get the barely less obtrusive "pat down" after repeated refusals.
I notice in articles, such as the NYT, when they quote passengers accepting of the process, the passengers don't generally know what the machine even does. The fact that every European country has called this machine unacceptable but the US has not is frightening and outrageous.