Once again it appears that airports are a test bed for nearly everything that will eventually trickle out into the general public. Whether it’s TSA VIPR teams on trains, or the emergence of biometric ID, the continuous reinforcement of an imminent and pervasive threat has people scrambling to give up their freedom for their ever-elusive security.
Although airport body scanners have been much maligned for their negative health effects from millimeter wave technology, as well as their thoroughly intimate invasion of privacy, it’s not stopping Los Angeles from rolling out a pilot program of the $60,000-per-unit scanners which began on Wednesday. Subway officials aim to process up to 600 people per hour in the (currently) voluntary screening:
The machines use sensors to scan a person as they walk through, searching for firearms and explosive compounds, said Dave Sotero, a Metro spokesman. Passengers don’t need to unload laptops or take off their jackets or shoes as the radio waves scan them to detect anomalies.
“It is specifically designed to test for mass-casualty threats,” Sotero said. “The technology enables the system to locate on the body where there is a potential threat, and it appears on a video screen.”
Metro is conducting the pilot program to evaluate the accuracy and capacity of the portable machines and determine if the scanners could become permanent fixtures in the Los Angeles transit system.
(Source)
This is actually a program that has been ramping up behind the scenes for quite a while. The company supplying the scanners, Evolv, made news nearly one year ago when it was revealed that Bill Gates was funding their start-up into the scanner space.
As the Guardian reported at the time, it was not only LA that was being zeroed in on, there are other locations where we can expect a possible roll-out.
A startup bankrolled by Bill Gates is about to conduct the first public trials of high-speed body scanners powered by artificial intelligence (AI), the Guardian can reveal.
According to documents filed with the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Boston-based Evolv Technology is planning to test its system at Union Station in Washington DC, in Los Angeles’s Union Station metro and at Denver international airport.
Evolv uses the same millimetre-wave radio frequencies as the controversial, and painfully slow, body scanners now found at many airport security checkpoints. However, the new device can complete its scan in a fraction of second, using computer vision and machine learning to spot guns and bombs.
It is the speed of the system which is being touted as its greatest asset and, if true, will likely lead to widespread roll-out across transporation and other venues. Whereas people are accustomed to hours of travel time surrounding their airline visit; trains, buses and events need near-instantaneous processing to keep people docile enough to tolerate it.
Yet another bonus, as the Guardian notes, is the potential integration of biometrics which, as previously mentioned, is a trend that is gaining traction with new forms of security programs.
The scanner also has a camera that takes a photo of each person passing through, enabling facial recognition.
Because it promises to be faster and cheaper than existing millimetre-wave scanners, the new device could bring airport-level screening to venues that were previously difficult to secure.
The Guardian goes on to highlight a laundry list of potential issues with the new technology arising from “the chaos of the real world” such as false positives, potential lack of fine tuning for sophisticated weapons, and reverse engineering of scanners by terrorists who would know how to conceal dangerous items.
Now would be the time for the traveling public to draw a line in the sand while public testing is underway and a pushback has a chance of being considered. Certainly the mentality of one traveler who was quoted in the most recent announcement is exactly what technocrats and the security industrial complex are looking for, but certainly should be cringe-worthy for anyone who truly values liberty:
“I think it is a good idea with everything that has been going on and ISIS,” passenger Jazmin Rosales, 29, said. “As long as it doesn’t take too long, at least you know you can feel safe.”
Nicholas West writes for ActivistPost.com. He also writes for Counter Markets agorist newsletter. Follow us at Twitter and Steemit.
This article may be freely republished in part or in full with author attribution and source link.
hope they go broke over this BS
They won’t. They’ll just raise taxes.
Full Body Scanners are capable of detecting genital mutilation Germans would have loved to have them in the last months of occupation.
let gates stand in one for a few hours.
as if that would cause him to suffer from anything… he was born brainless and ballless. and if there wouldn’t have been for cia and nsa, he and his buddy paul would still be puffing the magic dragon in his garage.
actually it was his buddy that was responsible for windows,he just took the credit.
spot on!
How is this “funded by Bill Gates”? Is he paying for these scanners? Is he funding research into them? Is he paying for the whole program? Was he asked to do this? Is it voluntary? Is he invested in the equipment? Or WHAT? —This article is woefully under researched or over-edited.
Does anyone else realize just how creepy…nightmarish this is? A private company paying for full body invasive technology – doing its part in supporting the neighborhood police state or funding it? – to absolutely demolish any remaining dignity while living in these places? You do realize, that after thousands of years of everyone contributing and increasing civilization including science, now that a few fat cats have reached the top of the power spectrum they’re stopping and sending else into devolution and servitude (serfdom actually); everyone else. The developing global police state is corporatism and corporate theft and rape at it’s worst. Russia is starting to look like paradise.
yup, the company is as private as federal reserve. unfortunately, for over 100 years, 99,99999999% of americans still refuse to face and accept the truth they are not free at all and in hands of a sinister gang of pedophiles, drug dealers, arms dealers, liars, chaeters, small, big and huge criminals. as all other countries in the world. sad but true.
Why is Gates doing this? Because he wants to bring in an Orwellian world government and ultimately reduce world population to zero. See
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WQtRI7A064
This is finally one step too far for this asshole (Gates). Microsoft products are just garbage anyway, so I don’t understand why they still sell, but this should be the tipping point for anybody who is concerned with individual liberty to STOP BUYING MICROSOFT PRODUCTS – EVER AGAIN! Smith and Wesson was destroyed when its ownership started advocating victim disarmament, so maybe Microsoft and Gates can be, too. It’s a fate they richly deserve.