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