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Which is important? Privacy or Your Life?

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http://news.discovery.com/tech/are-full-body-scanners-an-invasion-of-privacy.html

The above-mentioned Discovery News article summarises whether the implementation of full body scanners in airports is an invasion of privacy. However, the controversy would be whether the security or the rights of the people are being emphasised on. Now, I will discuss more about the implementation of body scanners in airports.

The evolution of technology over the years has indeed improved our daily lives, equipping us with high-technology tools to aid us in the process of our work. With such tools, it has indeed improved the quality, efficiency and accuracy of our work. However, there is a price to pay for accquring such high-tech tools. People with malicious intent might make use of these tools to gain personal benefits. As a result, a new tool will be derived under these circumstances to counter these people and there are more sacrifices to be made in terms of privacy or even causing harm to your health.

In the past, traveling across countries only involves simple security checks such as the using of machines to scan your luggage for suspicious items and metal detectors to trace any weapons hidden in your clothes or body. If a person is deemed to be suspicious enough, he/she will be brought to a room for interrogation and stripped for a full body check. However, all these security checks are just not effective enough to safeguard the security of the public. As a result, terrorists had little in their way to prevent them from terrorizing the masses. This all culminated to a head; the day forever shrouded in infamy, 9/11/2001.

This alarming issue has called for tougher, stricter measures. Governments have decided to revise their security policies conducted at the airport. It was decided that 2 types of ‘Full Body Scanners’ namely the millimeter wave and backscatter scanners be installed at the checkpoints to strengthen security and reduce the possibility of a terrorist attack. The scanners reveal hidden weapons or explosives in certain parts of body that otherwise would not have been easy to detect. These scanners also reveal metallic and non-metallic items e.g. improvised firearms. Indeed terrorist attacks are more difficult to coordinate this way. However, this has created uproar amongst travellers as these scanners virtually strip a person down to their skin level and potray his naked body on a screen. But travellers can opt out of the full body scan and undergo the patting-down procedure which involves a more physical security check on the traveller’s body. This includes searching areas in close proximity to the genetalia for weapons, which could prove to be extremely invasive to a person’s privacy. Travellers find it both methods very distasteful as it invades their god-given human rights.

However, these full body scanners are not 100% effective, as they cannot detect anything that is beneath the skin such as body cavities. Child protection laws could also be violated, as there is a risk that the child’s naked images would be distributed over the Internet. Furthermore, travellers are concerned with the amount of radiation generated from scanning that may harm the body or even cause cancer under long or frequent exposure. However, experts state that one will get the same amount of radiation exposure in a high altitude jet where most of the earth’s atmosphere is not avaliable to protect one from cosmic rays. Experts also mentioned that the full body scans are within the radiation standards and it is perfectly safe for pregnant woman, children or people whose genetic makeup is susceptible to radiation. In order to tackle the privacy issue, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) of the United States of America deployed more advanced imaging scanners that possess software to check for concealed weapons and explosives without the need for a human operator. TSA also intend to modifiy the scanners in a way that the faces of the images will be obscured and images cannot be stored in the computers to prevent distribution of these images over the Internet.

Hence, by weighing the security of travellers against the privacy of the same, I personally feel that protecting a life with scanners is definitely more important than privacy. Privacy will find its limits when your life is in danger and at that point of time, nothing is  better than staying alive.

Done By:

Tan Jun Hao, Jonathan

A0075060N


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