Teknovis

I read today that Manchester Airport has installed full body scanners to determine if users are carrying prohibited items. These scanners are developed by Rapiscan Systems, and the idea of them is that they will provide greater security for passengers, as well as improving their travelling experiences.

For more information about these scanners read Airport scanner shows ‘naked’ images or watch the video in ‘Naked’ scanner in airport trial.

Clearly such scanners will raise security concerns. Therefore, certain measures will be taken to protest users privacy:

• The operators will be in separate locations
• The operators will not be able to see the passengers’ faces
• The operators cannot use personal devices to capture images
• The images cannot be stored by the system

These measures are admirable, but I am not sure if they are really that useful.

Personally, I would not mind somebody seeing these images of my body, especially if it improves my airport experience!

However, I wonder will these scanners be used in other locations in the future, without knowledge or consent of the people being scanned. For example, such a scanner could be used at the entrance of a nightclub. Would this be a valid privacy concern?

Tags: Rapiscan Systems, UK