SCANNERS MAY BE MANDATED

Posted on 01/05/2016 | About United States

The US Transportation Security Administration can now mandate passengers go through body scanners. In the past travellers have had the option to get a full body pat-down instead, but that choice may now be denied at the discretion of airport security.

The new system will be “warranted by security considerations in order to safeguard transportation security.” The TSA says it "improves threat detection capabilities for both metallic and non-metallic threat objects." The agency said it does not store any personally identifiable information from the body scanner, known as Advanced Imaging Technologies, or AIT. The agency said that the body scanners don't have the ability to store images and that the software issues an alarm where a TSA screening officer will physically screen the body area where an issue is detected.

The software uses a generic image of a human body and not the person being screened, the TSA said. Bruce Anderson, a TSA spokesman said, “Some passengers will be required to undergo advanced-imaging screening if their boarding pass indicates that they have been selected for enhanced screening, in accordance with TSA regulations, prior to their arrival at the security checkpoint. This will occur in a very limited number of circumstances.”