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New Intrusive TSA Security Measures Arouse Privacy Concerns
May 25, 2009
The USA has instituted airport security measures that consist of full body visual examinations. Contraptions (similar to a doctor’s magnetic resonance imaging machine) stationed at airport screening facilities, have the ability to peer through all layers of personal clothing.
The devices do obscure the face of the traveler, but still have an unobstructed view of the entire body. Privacy advocates have serious concerns and are obdurate!
The Machines
Are called "millimeter-wave passenger imaging technology," and produces a more detailed picture than the metal detectors in use now at airports. CNN reporter Carol Cratty reported on October 12th 2008, “This is how the new scanners work. The passenger steps into a machine where he or she is quickly scanned with radio waves. Those waves reflect off the body to transmit a three-dimensional image of the passenger….”
The Security Paradigm
The events of September 11th 2001 have implanted a fear in the American psyche that is unsurpassed since the Japanese attach on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Dr. Amitav Acharya, deputy director and head of research at the Institute of Defense and Strategic Studies, Nanyang University, said in his paper, Fear, Power and Empire After September 11, “The most powerful nation on earth is also the most fearful nation. American security policy is driven by new kinds of fear…The main casualty of…fear [is]…democracy…and the ascendancy of the homeland security state.”
Transportation Security Administration Arguments
Arguments in favor of the machines center around 3 main points.
- Entrance into an airport departure area is tacit acceptance of security screening measures. A constitutional argument, better designed for the Supreme Court, the Conditions of Carriage listed on US airline tickets, do agree.
- Terrorists use ingenious methods to disrupt air transport. True but the TSA assumes all hijackers enter via the screening areas. David Burke, hijacker of PSA flight 1771, by-passed security and entered via the baggage area. Hijackers of TWA flight 847 smuggled grenades and weapons on via catering vehicles. Even the 911 hijackers did not attempt to pass highly secure Boston Logan Airport, but through a lax, smaller airport in Portland, ME.
- Security screening is enhanced and passenger disruption is minimized. This is an economic concern that should not be equated with security and privacy.
Arguments Against Implementation
CNN’s Cratty reported, “…Barry Steinhardt of the ACLU said the technology can pick up graphic body images and even medical details like whether a passenger has a colostomy bag.” The universal search and seizure clause of the US Constitution requires “reasonable grounds” for search of person or property. It may be argued that the purchase of an airline ticket does not abrogate those rights and therefore, intrusive search is unconstitutional.
However, the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution is quite specific about location. These rights exist when the person is located in or on personal or private property. Implicit in the purchase of a ticket on public transportation, strengthened by legal opinion, is the limited abrogation of these rights.
The DHS states that the images gathered can not be saved or printed; however, nothing prevents the inspector from photographing the computer monitor with a cell phone or digital camera and then photographing the passenger as they exit the machine. To overcome this problem TSA has separated the monitor from the device via an enclosed room over considerable distance.
Conclusion
The Founding Fathers designed the Constitution as a living document. It is up to the citizenry to determine whether civil liberties supercede security concerns. Whatever position the American populace accepts, the nation must understand that the loss of those liberties will alter the Constitution for many generations.
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