IP: more on "X-ray specs" airport scanners see you naked

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

------ Forwarded Message
From: Lauren Weinstein <lauren () vortex com>
Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 10:23:16 -0800
To: farber () cis upenn edu
Cc: lauren () vortex com
Subject: Re: IP: more on "X-ray specs" airport scanners see you naked

> From: gep2 () terabites com
> Moot point, since unless I'm very much mistaken, these full-body scanners do
> NOT use X-rays at all...

The above is not accurate.  The device being used at Orlando (Rapiscan
Secure 1000) does use x-rays.  There are other devices that use millimeter
waves.  All of the manufacturers of course assert that the amount of
radiation received is trivial.  Like they said in the old movie "Westworld"
about a robotic amusement park run amok: "Nothing can go wrong!"

The manufacturer's Web site shows sample images, interestingly not
among the clearer ones I've seen from other sources (almost always
male images, by the way).  As you may have heard, during the big
press demo at Orlando, they apparently only sent males through
while the reporters were present.

--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren () pfir org or lauren () vortex com or lauren () privacyforum org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, Fact Squad - http://www.factsquad.org
Co-Founder, URIICA - Union for Representative International Internet
                     Cooperation and Analysis - http://www.uriica.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy



> ------ Forwarded Message
> From: gep2 () terabites com
> Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 12:58:14 -0600
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Subject: Re: IP: "X-ray specs" airport scanners see you naked
>
> ["red hot bullets" comment about X-rays]
>
> Moot point, since unless I'm very much mistaken, these full-body scanners do
> NOT 
> use X-rays at all... the confusion comes from the "X-ray specs" term which
> is 
> ANALOGOUS to the type of image produced.
>
> Such a scanner is in any case a GREAT deal less intrusive than a body cavity
> search, which is the alternative for finding concealed objects of
> aggression.
>
> I'll also point out in passing that travelling by airplane on ONE
> cross-country 
> flight exposes the body to as much additional (natural) radiation as living
> a 
> LIFETIME just outside the security fence of a commercial nuclear power
> plant.  
> Those who are excessively paranoid about minute and occasional radiation
> exposure probably shouldn't fly at all.  :-))
>
> Gordon Peterson                  http://personal.terabites.com/
> Support the Anti-SPAM Amendment!  Join at http://www.cauce.org/
> 12/19/98: Partisan Republicans scornfully ignore the voters they
> "represent".
> 12/09/00: the date the Republican Party took down democracy in America.
>
>
>
>
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>
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