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Body scanners used as porn by airport security
It had to happen sooner or later.The Nigerian newspaper This Day has reported that security officials at Lagos airport are getting their jollies by watching female passengers go through a full-body scanner.
Nigerian investigative reporters visited the airport during a slow period when security officials had time to spare. The journalists found some of them hanging around the scanner display. Since the scanner blurs the face in an attempt to give anonymity, the officers were hurrying over to the line to peek at the passengers before going back to the scanner to check out their favorites.
The scanner was installed after the failed attack by underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who was from Lagos, yet technicians have revealed a full-body scan wouldn't have caught him. An Israeli security expert who helped plan security at Israel's super-strict Ben Gurion Airport says body scanners don't work. Israeli airports don't use the device.
Many Nigerians feel it is against their religion to expose themselves to a stranger, while others fear the effects of radiation. The investigative journalists witnessed passengers objecting to go through the scanner until security turned off one of the metal detectors, giving them the choice of using the full-body scanner or waiting in a longer line.
Filed under: Africa, Nigeria, Transportation, Airports, Travel Health, Travel Security
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Sean McLachlan Sep 29th 2010 1:14PM
Actually there are several types of full body scanner. Some use RF, some use x-ray, and some use millimeter waves. I don't know what one they're using in Lagos.
scott Sep 29th 2010 1:14PM
they are using backscatter x-ray scanners here in the USA. Check it out, they are in fact irradiating you.
Radiationguy Sep 29th 2010 2:13PM
OK.... I not only work for the manufacturer for the machine, I teach people how to repair it. Here are the REAL facts!
1. You get 3X more radiation flying on the plane (one direction) than this machine can produce.
2. This machine can not store images. The PC has NO storage capability. You would have to take a picture of the screen if you want to save the image. In the US, TSA can not enter the room with any electronic equipment including cell phones for that reason. The room is 100 ft from the passengers and isolated, too.
3. You can't stop perverts from being perverts. The image is not interesting at all. It is blurred (on purpose) and hides the face and private area. These Nigerians must have the maturity of a 7 year old.
4. The scanner does show hidden items on the body and is much safer than a metal detector. Try hiding anything from this machine. You can't smuggle drugs anymore.
Jimbo Sep 29th 2010 2:45PM
I quit flying because scanner are too intrusive. What's next...stripping off naked?
Destiny Sep 29th 2010 3:29PM
Anyone remember the case in Florida where 20,000 images were stored even though the public had been told storage was impossible? If body scanners are not in Israel, they should not be in America.
cqdeed Sep 29th 2010 3:36PM
Maybe the scanners don't store the images as they come out of the factory. The scanners do produce a digital image. I doubt if it would take more than 10 minutes to hook up a recorder. Anyone with 2 working brain cells could have seen this coming.
mike Sep 29th 2010 3:41PM
i have over 50 million dollars waiting for me in nigeria i it turns out am part black and had a rich relative die,,,
Emma Sep 29th 2010 3:43PM
Yes, it is possible to opt out of the scan.
However, you then opt in to a full body pat down. For a 17 year old girl both of these are frightening options to me and I am worried the next time I travel (which is at least 3 - 4 times a year, often alone) I will not be able to avoid one of these options.
I hope the TSA realizes how unsafe this is and gets rid of it.
Moon Sep 29th 2010 4:04PM
Anyone who would think those images are sexual in any way really needs look at a real human being at least once in their lives. The images don't even look human much less real
mo Sep 29th 2010 4:08PM
They will probably stone women on xrays
david Sep 29th 2010 4:14PM
Who writes these headlines? How can a scanner be abused? I think they mean mis-used.
mijsenrab Sep 30th 2010 4:32PM
"The images are not stored"
Does anyone out there actually believe statements like this from an organization run by Napollitano and her boss the Kenyan President of the country are believeable.
I will believe they are serious about security when they seal our pourous borders, apprehend and deport illegal aliens they let in.
Sarah Sep 29th 2010 6:42PM
umm. Its against their religion to see other people (other than their spouse) without clothing and its also against their religion for other people to see them as such, which is essentially what happens with these machines. Besides try as hard as you will you can't exactly stop people from gawking at others no matter what. Their religion states that they should keep their eyes lowered in modesty, but people have wants. Don't blame their religion if you don't know anything about it. It isn't the religion its the person.
Matt Sep 29th 2010 7:47PM
At the airport in Tampa, my girlfriend and I were going through security and from a full line of people, my girlfriend and another young woman were picked out for the scanner. THe ONLY ONES. They proceeded to be directed by what I consider to be sceevey TPA employees and when the two girls were done they shut off the damn machine and all left. I was so pissed at what I saw that I stood there for a while in enraged disbelief that such crap can go on. Still very upset
Mike Q Sep 29th 2010 8:05PM
Why are they so concerned over a person possibly having explosives. There are so many other ways to blow up an airplane if somebody chooses to do so. Buy off a maintenance worker, find a way to hide it a mail it. These things are just another way to make money and take away what little freedom we have left.
Wimpie Oct 1st 2010 3:37AM
"Advanced Imaging Technology" is a euphemism created to make people think they are getting "scanned." No one is getting "scanned" -- they are getting strip searched.
The fundamental privacy issue is whether our government has the right to make strip searches routine and mandatory.
There is no question that these machines violate the 4th Amendment.
There are also health issues. Researchers are already coming out saying that the machines aren't safe and could cause cancer.
Please check out the brochures at:
http://dontscan.me
http://airportbodyscan.org
and join us on Facebook
All Facebook Against Airport Full Body Scanners
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=239458517874
top ten beaches in the world Nov 11th 2010 10:34AM
Airport body scanner security can be harmful to the human body. A recent survey shows that most travelers have a nice body scanner. Scanners are considered a central war on terror. I think the full body scans are invasive but necessary - if you want to travel on a plane that everyone thinks the bomb (its a natural and signs everywhere). I say the whole body scan or not to fly. This is invasive, but if it means I have not blown up 30 000 m scan away! At the end of the day are losing some ruined for everyone.
http://www.airports360.net/airport-security-body-scanners-can-be-harmfull-for-the-human-body.html
roi f Nov 19th 2010 11:11AM
"Airport employees in Lagos have been caught using full body scanner images as a type of porn". What other proof do we need. This is just a bad idea all around and this type of abuse clearly shows human nature is to abuse this technology. Why is it that these systems even have the options of storing the images. The system, if deployed, should have absolutely no storage, retrieval or transmission of images of any kind.
Kenneth Dec 31st 2010 10:21AM
The Murtala Mohammed international airport Lagos in my opinion is the most abusive airport as far as privacy laws are concerned especially, with the introduction of the body scanner.
During my recent trip, I had already walked through a scanner and was subsequently patted down on my way to my departure gate, but was approached by an airport security staff who requested that I follow him to a room where I will be searched and scanned for a second time
While in the room, I was asked to step in front of a giant scanner and have my legs spread apart which I did,
the machine carried me through an x-ray snanning apparatus and soon after that, about 5 airport staff employees (3 men and 2 women to be exact) all gathered in front of a computer monitor to view my x-ray image, I couldn't figure out what they were looking for but I was asked to go on the machine again and I was scanned a second time, I didn't want to argue with them or question their motivation because I knew that this is Nigeria, I could easily miss my flight.
After I was scanned for the second time, they all gathered again in front of the computer monitor to view my second scanned image, suddenly one of the ladies sarcastically asked me, "what did you eat?", I replied to her that I ate some rice prior to my coming to the airport, they laughed and asked me to go, and wished me a safe trip.
I felt humiliated while in the plane, I also felt that the Lagos airports employees should be educated on privacy and dignity laws, I have never been so humiliated in my life, I still think about it and I feel bad and angry each time I do.