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Women refuse to go through airport body scanners

news.bbc.co.uk

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Re: Women refuse to go through airport body scanners

#4
post #2

"Security staff use the X-ray machine...." It's not an X-ray!! And I thought you always had the option of a pat-down if you refused the machine.

"In US airports where scanners are installed passengers have the option of a undergoing a body search. "

These passengers were in the UK though and didn't have that option/right.

Re: Women refuse to go through airport body scanners

#9
post #6

So you can refuse to go do it if you are randomly selected and you just forfeit your flight. How exactly does that add any protection against anything? Potential hijackers can't just buy another plain ticket?

Related: "Carnival Booth: An Algorithm for Defeating the Computer-Assisted Passenger Screening System," Samidh Chakrabarti, Aaron Strauss.

tl;dr Anything other than random is arguably worse.

Re: Women refuse to go through airport body scanners

#10
post #6

So you can refuse to go do it if you are randomly selected and you just forfeit your flight. How exactly does that add any protection against anything? Potential hijackers can't just buy another plain ticket?

This is security through obscurity. To quote Bruce Schneier:

Security is both a reality and a feeling. The reality of security is mathematical, based on the probability of different risks and the effectiveness of different countermeasure... Security is also a feeling, based on individual psychological reactions to both the risks and the countermeasures. And the two things are different: You can be secure even though you don't feel secure, and you can feel secure even though you're not really secure."

The body scanners give the reactionary populous a reason to "feel" secure; even though the chances of a terrorist being caught by body scanners are slim. (see http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2010/01/german_tv_on_t...)

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