If that were the case, then they wouldn't be on workfare with TSA.

I'm just in a hurry. I won't put up with any crap from a TSA employee but other then that, I'll let them use whatever they want as long as its the fastest way. While I'm sure there a number of TSA Peres, the majority are not & just have a job to do. As long as they do it quickly, I'm happy

I agree, but I still call MMWs nude-o-scopes (because it does an electronic strip search), while the OP seems not to. We should somehow try to get our terms straight...

It never ceases to amaze me that people care either about images of their bodies being seen or the bodies being touched by TSA people. What bothers me is that neither radiation nor microwaves are safe. To me, the violation of my cells' health is a far greater civil right infringement than that of either pictures or human touch. Indeed, I'd be fine with a requirement that all people disrobe completely and provide their clothing for inspection - so long as those nasty rays and waves stay out of my body.

It's not a modesty issue. It's a privacy issue. Federal employees have no need to know about travelers' surgical scars, implants, medical devices, adult diapers, etc., and privacy is a fundamental human right. Check out Bruce Schneier's writing about it.

I don't want federal agencies monitoring my e-mail either, even though some claim that monitoring private e-mails improves national security. Are you suggesting that we should just hand over our passwords at the checkpoint, too, if that's what it takes to avoid radiation and microwaves?

Waste of time to even be having this conversation. Fastest path through security is always my path. Anyone who wants to see or keep an obscured version of my naked body is welcome to it. As for real "privacy", by buying your ticket you've given the TSA (as an organization) inspiration to access pretty much all the public (and not so public) information that exists about you.

If you choose to give up your right to be secure in your person, and allow government actors to both view and touch the most intimate, sensitive, and personal parts of your body, you have that right. Enjoy it. Imagine candle light and soft music while the TSO's fingers gently caress your testicles, slide smoothly into your waistband, and run professionally through your hair.

You also have the right to NOT allow such personal violations.

The fact that they un-Constitutionally violate your privacy in other ways does not make the visual or physical violations meaningless.

I don't opt-out so I don't have your experience with the candlelight images. I invest 15 seconds in the millimeter wave scanner and move on with my life. I give up more privacy in the change room or sauna at the gym.

And, for that matter, I don't consider the scanners or pat-downs violations. They are a condition of travel, not unlike buying a ticket, carrying ID, carrying a passport for overseas travel, etc...

On the scale of things that my government does that drive me crazy, millimeter wave scanners at the airport are not on the scale.

Where do you draw the line? Do you have a line? What if TSA wanted to strip search you in private? In public? Make you fly in a hospital gown? Make you fly naked? Interview your boss or personal physician as to if you were mentally fit to fly?

You can claim my question is absurd or hyperbole, but I would bet dollars to donuts that everyone here on this board who is over the age of 30, if asked 20 years go (1993) what they thought of commercial air travelers on domestic-USA flights having to remove their jackets, remove their shoes, remove their belts, not carry liquid in containers > 3.4 ounces, be put through a scanner that can create a naked image, be subject to a secret blacklist that can prevent travel with no due process, and potentially be subject to a patdown involving the front of the hands cupping the groin, the response would have been incredulity or laughter at the absurd hyperbole of the ideas.

And this is among a population that in the previous decade (1983-1993) had experienced some scary aircraft bombings (e.g., Pan Am 103) and deadly hijackings (e.g., TWA 847), so it's not like they had never heard of terrorism.

No problem.
No problem.
No problem.
No problem.
That's a problem; that would be an invasion of privacy.

How about a routine body cavity search for each flight? No prob on that one too? I can conceal way more in my body cavities than I can in my waistband or my hair.

I always opt out, period.

I haven't had to opt out (don't fly much anymore) but I would opt out of the MMW. Another reason that hasn't been mentioned is the fact that these things were installed unlawfully, without the public comment period. Opting out is one of the few ways to send a message of disapproval to the lawless TSA.

You forget an important point. If you told me we would have the TSA & these methods now, 20 years ago of course I would have laughed at the absurdity if it. But had you told me this was the future & shown me pictures of what 9/11 would look like I would have seen the necessity. Just like if you told passengers in the 60's & 70's that metal detectors would be used in the 80's, they would have thought that would be absurd as well

I have no problem going thru whatever ridiculous machines the TSA has going, just get me thru the line fast. I don't need to make a statement. Yes, the TSA is a ridiculous agency staffed with more undesirables then any other part of the Govt but as long as they are here & as long as they are not rude to me, I could care a less if the want to look at me thru some scope

you are, in fact, being excessive. The TSA needs you to make it through their security theater as quickly as possible. Getting tweaked because the world is changing is a waste of psychic energy.

As has been observed many a time - if we can't keep weapons, drugs and cellphones out of maximum security prisons then there's no chance of keeping them off of airplanes. Taking the fast path through the millimeter wave scanner minimizes your time playing the game and gets you to the airline lounge most quickly.