RMJ Entry #18:

I read this article on Excite.com:

"A scanner the government is testing for airport screening reveals much more than meets the eye to be comfortable for most passengers.

Susan Hallowell, director of the Transportation Security Administration's security laboratory, sacrificed a large measure of her own modesty Wednesday to demonstrate the problem.

She stepped into a metal booth that bounced X-rays off her skin to produce a black-and-white image that revealed enough to produce a world-class blush.

Her dark skirt and blazer disappeared on the monitor, where she showed up naked - except for the gun and bomb she had hidden under her outfit.

'It does basically make you look fat and naked, but you see all this stuff,' Hallowell said.

The agency hopes to modify the machines with an electronic fig leaf - programming that fuzzes out sensitive body parts or distorts the body so it does not appear so, well, graphic.

Another option would be to restrict the screener to a booth so no passing peepers can see the image, said Randal Null, the agency's chief technology officer." (Excite.com - http://apnews.excite.com/article/20030626/D7RTG5UG0.html)

Does anyone else besides me find this disturbing? Whatever happened to pure decent privacy? This scanner practically reveals you down to the nude. Check out the picture in the article and you'll see what I mean. Has is really come to this? Do we really have to sacrifice our most fundamental level of privacy in the name of security? I DON'T THINK SO. Call me conservative, but I am forever a supporter of our right to be clothed as well as APPEAR to be clothed in front of strangers. You security people best bring this one back to the drawing board.