Airport Body Scanners: Security or Invasion of Privacy?

Currently, 19 U.S. airports use a total of 40 full-body scanners, which are able to take clear pictures of passengers' bodies.

The Transportation Security Administration has said that it wants to purchase an additional 300 machines.

TSA spokesman Greg Soule told the Chicago Tribune that the machines "significantly enhance security because they can detect metallic and nonmetallic items hidden under clothing."

"It is 100 percent optional for all passengers," Soule said in response to the protests over privacy. "They can choose to be screened with a full-body pat-down."

What is a full-body scanner?

	Privacy advocates believe that the images produced by body scanners are too invasive.

Full-body scanners are tall telephone stall or portable toilet-sized boxes. Air travelers stand in front of the machine for about 10 seconds to scan their entire body, producing a black and white image that blurs out the passenger's face.

Screeners looking at the image sit in a separate room so that they are unable to see who they are scanning.

Lawmakers and privacy advocates speak out

	In 2008, Rep. Chaffetz unsuccessfully tried to prohibit the wider use of full-body scanners.

The American Civil Liberties Union and other watchdog groups oppose the scanners, calling them an invasion of personal privacy and have expressed fears that the images could be misused. 

"That degree of examination amounts to a significant -- and for some people humiliating -- assault on personal privacy to which travelers in a free country should not automatically be subjected," the ACLU said in a statement. The group argues that scanners would be able to see if someone was wearing an adult diaper or private medical device.

Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah also opposes the scanners -- in 2008, he co-authored a bill that would prevent the government from widely using such machines in airports.

"We don't need to look at naked 8-year-olds and grandmothers to secure airplanes," Chaffetz said last week. "Are we really going to subject 2 million people per day to that? I think it's a false argument to say we have to give up all of our personal privacy in order to have security," he added.

But 78 percent of Americans surveyed in a USA Today/Gallup Poll said that they approved of the scanning machines, and 84 percent of those surveyed believed that the scanners would help prevent terrorists from trying to blow up planes.

Tension between individual privacy and national security

	Former President Bush signed the PATRIOT Act into law in October of 2001.

After the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration made national security a priority, citing the need to collect more personal information about potential terrorists through processes like wiretapping.

Privacy advocates fought against the 2001 PATRIOT Act which eased restrictions on the government's authority to search through private personal communications and records for the purposes of gathering intelligence.

Supporters of the act said that it was instrumental in providing law enforcement officials with information that would help protect Americans from future terrorist attacks.

Does the U.S. Constitution protect personal privacy?

	The Bill of Rights protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures, but school officials have questioned how much privacy laws apply to students.

The Constitution does not directly address the individual right to privacy, but many Supreme Court decisions have concluded that privacy is a fundamental human right.

For example, the 1972 case Roe v. Wade controversially concluded that the government could not prohibit abortion based on a women's right to personal or bodily privacy. The case was decided primarily on the 9th Amendment, which says that even though the Constitution lays out certain specific rights, such as free speech and religious choice, it cannot be used to "deny or disparage others retained by the people."

Right to privacy is also mentioned indirectly in several amendments such as the 4th Amendment which protects against "unreasonable searches and seizures."