Walking through airport scanners is a necessary aspect of airline travel these days, but have you ever stopped to think about what those machines actually reveal?
The devices are designed to highlight any objects people could be hiding beneath their clothes - so obviously, they must be able to 'see through' your clothes to some extent.
But exactly how much can they see?
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In the grand scheme of things, widespread airline travel is a relatively recent thing, so the technology surrounding the security of it all is still being updated and perfected.
Not enough to allow you to take through a full-sized bottle of shampoo just yet, but we're making progress all the same.
Shawna Malvini Redden, PhD, a communication researcher who has studied the TSA since 2010, and who authored the book 101 Pat-Downs, revealed to Reader's Digest that airport security would have been able to see a whole lot through X-ray machines just a few years ago.
Images said to be from these scanners went viral after revealing the shocking reality of the images, showing highly detailed renderings of a completely naked body.
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Yep, you heard me right. Those members of security apparently got an eyeful every single time someone walked through the scanners.
Malvini Redden confirmed the truth of these images as she commented: “Early versions of the scanners came out without any privacy protections, and TSOs in the checkpoint could be looking at naked images of passengers as they went through the screening."
Needless to say, this revelation left people reeling.
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Taking to X after hearing the news, one person commented: "Wait when you walk through the airport security scanner thing do the tsa agents see you naked???!!?!! I should have been flexing!!!!!!!!"
As I mentioned, however, technology has moved on since 2013.
Thankfully the scanners aren't quite so invasive nowadays, as Malvini Redden explained: "Now when passengers are scanned, the machines are supposed to generate generic images of a body instead of the passenger’s unique image.”
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Instead of detailed images, then, the machine instead creates a 'doll'-like figure to represent the generic human shape.
“With millimeter wave machines that have the privacy software installed, TSOs are only seeing this outline with a green ‘clear’ or a red ‘stop and check’ signal,” Malvini Redden continued.
“If someone has something in their pockets, for instance, the machine will put an alarm note in the paper doll’s groin region so the officer knows generally where to search.”
So there you have it; you don't need to worry about security seeing all your bits and pieces - just whatever you've forgotten to take out of your pockets.
Topics: Travel, Technology, Science
Emily Brown