Airport scanners to dress up 'naked' images

Travellers will no longer feel humiliated by the controversial airport scanners, which currently see through clothing and reveal clear outlines of a person’s anatomy. The figure shown on all passengers’ scans will be that of...

Travellers will no longer feel humiliated by the controversial airport scanners, which currently see through clothing and reveal clear outlines of a person’s anatomy.

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The "naked" airport scanners will soon display a generic figure instead of an image of passengers' body parts due to a planned software upgrade addressing privacy concerns.

The figure shown on all passengers’ scans will be that of a man in a t-shirt, jeans and a baseball cap.

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) aims to add the software, made by L-3 Communications and OSI Systems Rapiscan, to the machines at airport across the US.

The scanners are planned to be rolled out around Australia next year as part of a security overhaul.

The revisions “certainly address most of the privacy concerns,” News.com.au quoted Peter Kant, a Rapiscan executive vice president, as telling Bloomberg.

However the upgrades don’t resolve privacy questions relating to the storing of the images and information.

There is no timescale on when this could be rolled out. A TSA spokesman said the software is currently being tested.