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Airline passengers barely blinked at using a new security scanning system this week that essentially lets guards peer beneath their clothes, a spokeswoman for Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport said Wednesday.

"People figure if this is going to let me get through the lines quicker, then I'll do it," spokeswoman Miriam Snoerwang said.

The "millimeter wave" technology system being tested at Schiphol Airport as part of antiterrorism efforts is under consideration for deployment in the United States by the Department of Homeland Security.

It differs from the "backscatter" system being tested at some airports, including Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport, in that it uses low-energy radio waves, rather than high-energy X-rays, to create a dim outline of a passenger's body.

Both systems allow guards to see any suspicious object, such as a gun, that passengers may have concealed under their clothes. Faces are blurred, but not chests or crotches. Snoerwang said that was necessary because otherwise "women could just hide things by stuffing them in their bras."

The system is also being tested at airports in Mexico City and London, among others.

The American Civil Liberties Union has called both backscatter and the millimeter wave systems a "virtual strip-search" but has filed no legal complaints against them.

Passengers were given a brochure explaining how the machine works, but Snoerwang said that, since the machines were opened for public use Tuesday, there have been no objections about the sacrifice of privacy for security.

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