Source: Globe and Mail
Air travellers everywhere may soon be able to choose between the traditional pat-down and a new X-ray machine that leaves little to the imagination.

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport is the first airport in the United States to conduct a pilot program with the SmartCheck security scanner, which uses backscatter X-ray technology, a form of low-level radiation that penetrates clothing. An early generation of images, however, proved too revealing, with bodies clearly defined. That triggered an outcry from such privacy protection groups as the American Civil Liberties Union. The Transportation Security Administration, which oversees security in 425 U.S. airports, agreed that the pictures were invasive and asked for changes.

The company complied. The machines now blur some details and render an image similar to a chalk outline that still shows some body creases while promising to disclose “all types of threat objects,” Reiss said. Implants larger than small pins, such as Johnson’s shoulder and knee replacements, would also show up, TSA officials said. But security authorities will not divulge exactly what does and does not show up on a SmartCheck image and will not say whether the machine has nabbed any passengers carrying suspicious objects.