India dumps airport Backscatter machine
Revealing images upset socially conservative security guards; cultural values often underappreciated by security officials
This cannot be good news for Billerica, Massachusetts-based American Science & Engineering. The company has enjoyed mixed success over the last year with its Z Backscatter-based machines, with security agencies worldwide scooping up its mobile explosives detection vans but remaining wary of its “full monty” airport devices. Readers will recall last year’s decision by TSA to delay deployment until privacy issues could be resolved, and they will also recall AS&E’s attempt to comply by blurring out passengers’s genitals (or “gentles”, as Mel Brooks’s 2001 Year Old Man would say). This may eventual come up roses, but not everyone is willing to wait. India, for one, has decided to reject a similar machine. In this case, at least, it was not AS&E that manufactured the device.
According to India’s Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), responsible for securing the nation’s airports, a single backscatter X-ray device imported in November has been mothballed after guards found the images embarrassing to look at. “Only one machine was brought to the Indira Gandhi International airport (in New Delhi) four months ago for trials, but we found the images were too revealing,” a senior CISF official told the Times of India. “It was quite unnerving … terribly embarrassing actually.” No doubt the backscatter industry will survive this rebuke, but the episode once again demonstrates that — as we have already seen repeatedly with biometrics systems — security procedures must be chosen with cultural and political sensitivity in mind.
Correction: The original version of this article stated that AS&E was the manufacturer of the recalled Backscatter machine. According to a company spokeswoman, this is not correct. We regret the error.
-read more in this AFP report
