Originally Posted by
doober
There are, I believe, two reasons for the humiliating pat downs done when people refuse the strip search:
You hit the first one - they are trying to force people through the machine and
two, when you refuse the strip search, you become the control part of their experiment to determine if the machine misses anything - like in one's crotch.
Did other passengers seem to know what the machine was? Was there signage showing an image of the scan and informing people they could opt out?
Good for you for finding another way through the airport to avoid this abomination! Please encourage all your friends and colleagues to do the same.
When Terminal E is busy there are 4-5 different lines that one can go through, only one has the scanner. When the terminal is not busy, everyone uses the single line that has the scanner. The scanner does not have any markings saying what it is and since it is where the old "puffer" machine used to be, I doubt anyone notices that's it different.