page_title: Backscatter X-ray
section_title: Privacy
hierarchical_section_title: Backscatter X-ray / Concerns / Privacy
caption_attribution_description: English: An image of Susan Hallowell, Director of the Transportation Security Administration's research lab. [1] taken with backscatter x-ray system, which is in use for airport security passenger screening. This is not the image that screeners see at the airports. The machine that took this image does not have the privacy algorithm.
context_page_description: Backscatter X-ray is an advanced X-ray imaging technology. Traditional X-ray machines detect hard and soft materials by the variation in x-ray intensity transmitted through the target. In contrast, backscatter X-ray detects the radiation that reflects from the target. It has potential applications where less-destructive examination is required, and can operate even if only one side of the target is available for examination.
  The technology is one of two types of whole-body imaging technologies that have been used to perform full-body scans of airline passengers to detect hidden weapons, tools, liquids, narcotics, currency, and other contraband. A competing technology is millimeter wave scanner. One can refer to an airport security machine of this type as a "body scanner", "whole body imager", "security scanner" or "naked scanner".
context_section_description: Backscatter x-ray technology has been proposed as an alternative to personal searches at airport and other security checkpoints easily penetrating clothing to reveal concealed weapons. It raises privacy concerns about what is seen by the person viewing the scan. Some worry that viewing the image violates confidential medical information, such as the fact a passenger uses a colostomy bag, has a missing limb or wears a prosthesis, or is transgender.
  The ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center are opposed to this use of the technology. The ACLU refers to backscatter x-rays as a "virtual strip search". According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), in one trial 79 percent of the public opted to try backscatter over the traditional pat-down in secondary screening.
  It is "possible for backscatter X-raying to produce photo-quality images of what's going on beneath our clothes", thus, many software implementations of the scan have been designed to distort private areas. According to the TSA, further distortion is used in the Phoenix airport's trial system where photo-quality images are replaced by chalk outlines. The TSA has also commented that screening procedures such as having the screener viewing the image located far away from the person being screened could be a possibility.
  In light of this, some journalists have expressed concern that this blurring may allow people to carry weapons or certain explosives aboard by attaching the object or substance to their genitals.
  The British newspaper The Guardian has revealed concern among British officials that the use of such scanners to scan children may be illegal under the Protection of Children Act 1978, which prohibits the creation and distribution of indecent images of children. This concern may delay the introduction of routine backscatter scanning in UK airports, which had been planned in response to the attempted Christmas Day 2009 attack on Northwest Airlines Flight 253.
  The Fiqh Council of North America have also issued the following fatwa in relation to full-body scanners:
  It is a violation of clear Islamic teachings that men or women be seen naked by other men and women. Islam highly emphasizes haya (modesty) and considers it part of faith. The Quran has commanded the believers, both men and women, to cover their private parts.
  In August 2010, it was reported that U.S. Marshals (part of the Department of Justice), saved thousands of images from a low resolution mm wave scanner: This machine does not show details of human anatomy, and is a different kind of machine from the one used in airports. TSA, part of the Department of Homeland Security, said that its scanners do not save images and that the scanners do not have the capability to save images when they are installed in airports, but later admitted that the scanners are required to be capable of saving images for the purpose of evaluation, training and testing.
caption: An image of Susan Hallowell, Director of the Transportation Security Administration's research lab taken with backscatter x-ray system.
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