The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) recently made some surprising changes to the way whole-body imaging is to take place at airports across the nation. The use of these machines have privacy and personal security issues for everyone, but will likely impact women more than men.

Prior to the changes, the TSA had said that whole-body imaging, aka "the virtual strip search," would be used only as a secondary screening tool, and that even then, it would be voluntary; passengers would still have the choice between going through a virtual strip search and a pat down search. That is about to change. The TSA has announced that whole-body imaging will be phased in as a replacement for primary screening (i.e. the metal detectors) and it will cease to be voluntary.

Women will be particularly vulnerable for these reasons:

- The strip search machines are designed to record the images of people who pass through them. Currently the machines have this feature turned off, but there is no guarantee that this will always be the case. Images of women may be kept for later use by unscrupulous TSA agents.

- When pat downs of airline passengers first began, there were many more complaints from women than men. Women complained of being "groped" and "felt up" by TSA agents. But these pat downs occur in front of everyone, so enough attention was called to the problems that the TSA did more education about how to conduct a proper search and complaints decreased. In contrast, the whole-body images will be examined by TSA agents sequestered in a room away from everyone, doing their job in secret, and so we won’t be be able to know whether or not they are storing images.

- Society bombards women daily about what our bodies are supposed to look like, and we’re judged harshly if we don’t fit into those narrow ranges. Most people are not comfortable being naked in a public place. Will this experience exacerbate the negative body images that a lot of women have? And while we’re on the subject, many people of all genders feeling uncomfortable being naked in public. Yes, this is an issue of modesty for some, but the bigger issue is one of human dignity. There are other, much less privacy-invasive options available with regard to airline screening. Our government, and other governments should be exploring these options.

- We have yet to see any comprehensive study that has examined the health effects of these machines on pregnant women,  as well as on children, people with chronic health conditions, or frequent travelers.

- Making virtual strip searches more common increases the normalization of strip searches, making the presence of these machines more likely in other areas of our lives. Currently, people are now being searched either via pat down or through a metal detector when they go to live music venues, some dance clubs, and sporting event venues. In the future, will virtual strip search machines be used in these venues instead? And if so, might more women opt out of participating in these events because they don’t wish to be strip searched (for all of the reasons I’ve stated above)?

Women must protest.

As ACLU lawyer Chris Calabrese says: "A choice between being groped and being stripped, I don’t think we should pretend those are the only choices. People shouldn’t be humiliated by their government in the name of security…” Without rules in place that regulate the use of these machines, we end up with capricious rule changes made by the TSA.

Many privacy and civil liberties groups have launched a campaign against the use of these machines as the primary method of screening.

By May 31, 2009, sign onto the Privacy Coalition’s letter to Secretary Janet Napolitano, here.

For more information,see:

Electronic Privacy Information Center, here

Congressman Jason Chaffetz’s comments on whole body imaging, here

TSA page on whole body imaging, here

Budget Traveler’s Blog (note the comments), here

House Bill: HR 2027, use Thomas to search, here