The naked truth

I seldom get into “write your Congressman” mode – we’re all busy people, after all – but I have written to mine (even though I can’t stand him) to urge him to support H.R. 2027.
This bill reads in part: “Whole-body imaging technology may not be used as the sole or primary method of screening a passenger under this section. Whole-body imaging technology may not be used to screen a passenger under this section unless another method of screening, such as metal detection, demonstrates cause for preventing such passenger from boarding an aircraft.”
Yes, the Transportation Security Administration wants every single airline passenger – that’s you, your mom, your teenage daughter and everybody else who wants to get on a plane – to get naked first. They call it “virtually naked” – the technology allows the screener to see through your clothes – but the result is the same as if you were told to go to a room, take your clothes off and allow some unseen person to check out your goods.
The TSA is in love with these machines. At first, it claimed they would only be used for secondary screening; now they want to replace all airport metal detectors with this virtual strip search. The concept of “probable cause” is tossed out the window.
H.R. 2027 also would make it illegal for anyone to store one of these images. In the past, the TSA has claimed that storing is impossible, but in truth there is an “on-off switch.” Theoretically, a naked picture of your teen could end up on the inside of a screener’s locker door.
We have behaved like sheep long enough, allowing our rights to be trampled. Let’s get behind this bill.

Jobs!

In the next issue of Travel Technology Update, we will introduce a new feature: Jobs.

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