Privacy vs. security - the evolving equation

September 11, 2001, forever changed the balance between personal privacy and public safety - at least when it comes to air travel. How companies, the government, and the airlines extend to passengers a modicum of personal privacy - while protecting the traveling public - is a dilemma that has occupied many good minds of late.

The people at American Science & Engineering (AS&E) contend they've developed a system that “screens for a wide variety of threats concealed on a passenger, while ensuring their privacy”. It's the SmartCheck whole-body imaging system, and it's about to be pilot tested at New York Kennedy (JFK).

This Cheapflights reporter saw a mock-up of the system recently, and examined the chalk-like outline of a passenger that it produces. I'd have to concur with AS&E's assessment that the technology does “not show revealing images of the screened individuals”. It does, however, pinpoint things that could bring down an airplane.

AS&E says SmartCheck, which has been operating at Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) and Los Angeles International (LAX), is far preferred by passengers to a traditional pat-down. In previous pilot trials, AS&E says “90 percent of passengers chose whole-body imaging screening [to] pat-down searches”.

SmartCheck employs a technology called Z Backscatter X-ray. The company says a person passing through the scanner gets about the same amount of radiation as someone flying for two minutes at an altitude of 30,000 feet.

So far, the Transportation Security Administration appears to have been using SmartCheck for secondary screening purposes (when they want to examine a person further), rather than as a primary screening mechanism for all passengers.

© Cheapflights Ltd Jerry Chandler