Speaking as a reasonably frequent flyer, I can vouch that it’s a pain when you reach airport security and must remove your coat, belt, boots, watch and jewellery for scanning and then have your body frisked by the staff. Especially when you have two small children, a laptop, hand luggage and a buggy to juggle, this process can be tedious and causes queues at peak times.

However, I’m not convinced that what we really, really want is a human X-ray machine that generates naked images of passengers, such as the one recently installed at Terminal 2 of Manchester Airport. Thanks to the machine from RapiScan Systems, it will be easy to see which passengers have stashed explosives or contraband inside their clothes or where the ‘sun don’t shine’ but it will also be easy to see breast enhancements, false limbs, intimate piercings and clear outlines of people’s ‘private parts’, to use that rather twee moniker.

Holidaymakers who don’t want to have their bumps and bits photographed at Manchester Airport (now becoming a ‘scareport’ for the prudish of nature) can opt for the usual frisking instead. I’m sure the likes of my Mother, who would avoid venturing into a store changing room lest too much ankle were exposed, will be highly relieved to hear that the new system isn’t compulsory.

We’re reassured that the black and white image of each passenger (at least it’s not in lurid colour,) will only be viewed by one operative in a remote location and then deleted. That’s what they say now. But remember what happened to the nation’s child benefit details, lost on a CD in November 2007, and our learner driver details, lost in Iowa in December 2007: a survey showed that 37 million items of personal data went missing that year. With this sort of data ‘security’ in mind, do we really want a naked body image on record, even for a second? Do we know who’s looking? Do we trust the purveyors of this system or is it all too Big Brother?

Photographer Matthew Smith said of the system: “I wonder how long it will take for police officers and shopping mall security to be issued with handheld versions of this technology or how long it will take before it’s integrated with CCTV?”

He added wryly: "I think the images would make a great exhibition – ‘Anti Terrorism, The Naked Truth’ - the last intimate bastion of your privacy compromised. After all, your financial details, your health details, all your web searches, email conversations, text messaging and phone calls are all already accessible by government without so much as a your by or leave, so what’s wrong with being coerced into getting naked for them too when you need to travel?”

Personally, I think there’ll be considerable resistance to the machine from certain sectors of the travelling public (the modest and the anarchic, for example) and the terrorist/smuggler who has hidden his explosives/contraband out of, ahem, view is surely going to opt for the frisking instead, where it might not come to light.

Whatever next? Speed cameras on the M25 that can read the vehicle’s number plate, produce a naked body scan of the driver for ID purposes and heat-sense whether he’s consumed any drugs or alcohol as well? Perhaps the data can be linked to his Tesco Clubcard account so we know exactly what he bought before he started the journey.

Personally, I think the airport X-ray really is a tad Big-Brotherish, as are ID cards and devices that track our movements and behaviours. These technologies are surely designed for someone else’s convenience and motives, rather than to aid the travelling public or the consumer. I’m not convinced that we should rush to embrace the human X-ray and stand ‘naked and proud’ being scanned en route to various business and holiday destinations.