Welcome to FT, Andy. It seems to be a roll of the dice these days. In my experience, even polite opt outs are met with questions and offers to let the traveler complete a "feedback card" that requests your name and email address--while that information is "optional", doesn't inspire confidence that one won't end up on a "list" of some sort.

For Thanksgiving travel out of IAD prior to the holiday, the lane marked for families was NOT routed through the NOS, the other lane, ostensibly for experienced travelers and those who need less time to prepare their possessions to go through the x-ray, was routing all travelers through the NOS.

After Thanksgiving, at SAN, it appeared that all travelers were routed through the NOS, and requests for opt outs were met with a bit of a puzzled reaction as to why one would want to opt out, which was a bit more subtle than the puzzled reaction when I opted out the month before.

Good luck with your article. This may be a bit of a tangent, but regarding passenger dignity, it would be interesting to know what the manufacturers of products designed to protect one's dignity and privacy (ostomy products, adult incontinence products, feminine protection products, etc.), which can be seen by the scanners, and felt during pat downs have to say about how their customers are being treated. Customer dignity and privacy are key parts of their marketing strategies.

Very well stated, Darkumbra.