Starting from last week New York and Los Angeles airports have started using body scanners which can “see” beneath a passenger’s clothing to check whether they are carrying concealed weapons or not. The equipment, which is the size of a door, produces a computerized image of a traveler’s body using particular low-energy electromagnetic waves.

The whole scanning procedure takes only a minute. The passenger just has to step in and rise their arms. Officials from the Transportation Security Administration claim that this way of scanning isn’t as invasive as the physical checking of a person. However, many travelers seem to be rather worried about having more intimate parts of their bodies to be scanned.

However, according to FOXNews, the system has privacy safeguards.

TSA officials say the system comes with privacy protections. Officers reviewing the images don’t interact with passengers, or even see them. They sit in a separate area, look at the pictures on a monitor and push a button to either clear travelers or alert security about a suspicious item. Images will not be recorded or stored. Passenger faces are blurred to further protect their identities.

Until now, passengers have had the option to chose between wave scanners and physical pat-downs. The new equipment is being used on a trial basis, but the the U.S. authorities seem to believe in their effectiveness.

According to ninja6188.vox.com posts there are even people who think that these measures should have been taken earlier in order to avoid suspicious characters trying to board flights.

I’m not sure why it has taken so long for airport security to have reached this decision. All that interim x-ray technology has only contributed to lengthy delays pre-flight. If this sort of full-body scanner had been introduced from Day One, we’d have less nonsense emanating from suspicious characters trying to board flights. Oh, the nude thing? Bah! As though nobody knows what’s beneath the clothes we wear. Come on. Bring them on.