It is not exactly true that you cannot choose the detector or scanner. You can inform the agent that you will not use the metal detector and prefer the body scanner, and you will be sent through the scanner. I prefer to do this because the filter in my colostomy appliance has set off the metal detector before and the process for failing the body scanner is much quieter and tends not to garner the attention of onlookers.
You can also refuse the metal detector and request a pat down.
If you fail the scanner or the metal detector and are subject to a pat down, it is not as bad as advertised. I believe the pat down is altered for children under 12, or so I have read.
People selected for a pat down have the right to a witness of their choice and to a private screening.
Also, while you technically cannot choose the metal detector, at many airports the scanner is only in one line and they let you pick the line you go in.
When I last flew, more or less everybody was being selected for the scanners. But it was slow and they had four of them at that airport.
Originally Posted by
SATTSO
I disagree as this is founded on nothing more than fear and a desire for the critics of TSA to want this to be happening. To suggest that the image of someone screened by AIT can be differentiated between someone physically attractive and someone who is not, is silly. It can not be done. Often times - heck, most of the time - general age can not be determined. Facial features can not be seen. And sometimes, even gender can not be determined. On top of that, the entire image for the backscatter is blurred.
Perhaps but the three times I have gone through the millimeter wave scanner they have found my colostomy and seemed to know EXACTLY where it was. I suspect that the resolution is quite high. Though if it wasn't it would explain why one failure was determined to be in the groin area and one in the hip area two days apart on my last trip. I was wearing the same bag, which had not moved in 2 days. That was hilarious.