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Comment by deadfall | Hacker News Reader

I started questioning all the TSA security after I recently watched a demonstration on how you could make dangerous weapons with items you can purchase after you go through security. It is quite scary. The people that want to cause harm will always find a way.

I have not been outside the US, I am curious on the security around the world. Namely, flights headed towards US airports. Do they have to go through body scanners?

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I'm a US citizen and I don't believe that when I flew from Berlin (TXL) back to the States a year ago that I had to go through a body scanner. It was quite relaxed. Likewise, my prior arrival in Frankfurt was like getting off a domestic (US) flight. Go straight to baggage. Stop at customs IF you have anything to declare, then off you go. In contrast, re-entering the States in Seattle was an appalling bit of theater. Crotch-sniffing dogs, long lines waiting to be interrogated and to have my Papiere scrutinized, then re-scanning of checked luggage (I had a connecting flight). I'm traveling again to .de in March and it will be very interesting to see what, if anything, has changed.

I've flown to the USA from the UK twice, once in 2012 and again in 2013. It was notably different from most of my other flying experiences, but only on the US side - UK side was BAU. Both times I had to give fingerprints and answer a bunch of questions which is a lot more than I'm used to. In 2013 I was directed to go through a MW scanner, but it was a very casual thing, everyone was going through them as they had placement similar to metal detectors (i.e. you couldn't really go through security without going through them). They were actually very cool in a way, very small, very fast, very futuristic. It was all such a rush, and with such an assumption that you were going to go through this thing, that it didn't even occur to me to opt-out. I think next time I will, just to see what that is like.

The only other place I've been that was similar at the border was Russia (I haven't flown into Russia, but flying out I went through.. some sort of scanner. They didn't tell me what it was, it was about 10x the size of the US ones, big white metal box, covered in radiation warnings, totally dark on the inside) Actually, the USA reminded me more of Russia than any other country I've been to, with the questioning, the scanners, being given grief if you questioned anything, and of course - the paperwork.

I fly to the US a few times a year. Until a year ago from Switzerland either direct or London, now from Tokyo. Never seen a full body scanner outside the US. There is a bit of security theater though, which might pale in comparison to the TSA, like a security officer at ZRH giving me a 'old school' (read: no private areas) pat down because, as he told me, "I was the 12th guy in a row". At NRT they check your ID or passport prior to entering the airport and may glance at your bag, due to the troubles when they opened the airport. HND doesn't have that IIRC. TL;DR, this seems mostly limited to the US from my experiences.

I do believe the first deployment of these scanners was at Amsterdam's Schipol airport. They were deployed at the time of the infamous Underwear Bomber that supposedly led to the US deploying them. This is the same Schipol airport where the Underwear Bomber went through security before boarding his flight to the US.

If you're flying from Amsterdam to the US, you do. They have usually blocked off the metal detectors and claim that you have to use the body scanners (you do have the right to opt out, but it's not stated there).

Yeah, you can opt out of the ones at Schiphol. One time I got a security guard give me a talk about how safe they were, and why wouldn't I want to.

They're millimetre wave machines, I think, so they likely are safe (certainly not ionising), but there are some theorised mechanisms by which they could impart greater energy on cellular molecules than is otherwise believed to be the case.

What really annoys me is that if these were medical devices, they would require many years of design approval and safety trials, so that their safety wouldn't be assumed but assured (to a high probability) before they could be deployed. Their maintenance regimes would be heavily regulated. However, when it's for security (or rather for lining the pockets of well-connected vendors and contractors), then none of this needs to be done.

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