One day, a few years from now, we will look back on the metal detector used for airport security with the same puzzled look that creeps on our faces when we recollect smoking in bars, or, in the Neolithic era, in hospitals.

The metal archway will be a relic.  Transport Canada announced this week that they will be start installing full-body scanners in major Canadian airports starting this month, after American airports did the same in response to the attempted terrorist attack where a single lunatic tried to blow up a plane with powders sewn into his underwear.

Underwear is a running theme in this issue. People are getting theirs in a bunch over the issue of privacy. What makes the scanners attractive as security tools is that they give a very accurate and precise image of the body. Even though the monitor of the scanners will be in another room, and the identity of the patron will be indiscernible, it will still mean that someone, somewhere, will be seeing passengers in their birthday suits.

I think those concerned about privacy have a point. It’s a very slippery slope we are on. Cameras are on the street, googlemaps monitor our homes and streets and the internet has become a photography purgatory. If someone’s body scan were to wind up on the internet, time would be helpless in assuaging the embarrassment, as it would be online for eternity.

That said, as surveillance and the internet evolves, so do our security needs. No longer does detection fit the bill. Passengers must be scanned and virtually stripped in order to (hopefully) prevent more crazed people with the modern-day terrorist’s predilection for using planes as weapons in being successful.

Personally, I am willing to go through the new machines since it means augmented security overall. As surveillance becomes more prominent, I figure my privacy will be likely maintained as I am lost in the volume of data generated by all these tools.