Backscatter

There is really some buzz about xray backscatter scanners here in Germany. Many newspaper titled with "European Commision allows nude scanners". I reported about them in an article back in 2005 when Bruce "He knows Alice and Bobs shared secret" Schneier wrote about them. At that time i thought about them as a maximum invasive security measure. But i think different now: At first .. the software of this scanners has evolved .. they blur the forms of the body or they entirely deletes it from the image leaving just the foreign objects in the image.

But there is an important additional reason: Let´s assume you fly in vacation: Most of the womens take an bathing suit with them, that discloses more than it covers. And the bathing trunks for men aren´t especially covering pieces of clothing (even besides the Borat-type ones). There are some functional needs that led to this design of bathing wear. Just thinks about hydrodynamics. It´s not a problem to go to beach in clothings like this ... why it´s a problem to be scanned with less amount of details.

Okay. The correct question is: What can i get back for disclosing my body in this manner? That´s simple. Today a coin in your pocket, the underwire of a bra or a metal shoelace eyelet can send you a body search. I found it more invasive to be touched and searched by strangers than showing them something they could see on television, in newspapers ar at the beach in a much better quality (image quality and quality of the displayed body ) (BTW: There is and reaaallly old joke. Goes like "I like flying ... without bodychecks at the airport i wouldn´t have any sexual life"). When we can get rid of body checks in lieu of walking through a backscatter scanner, i´m okay with that.

It´s pretty much an hyped discussion at the moment. Hope there will be some logic thinking in this discussion soon...