New security procedures tested by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) in the United States are set to make the screening system even more invasive.
Under the tests passengers have to separate out paper products including books as well as other items like chocolate and cheese.
Officials will have the right to leaf through personal books and reading materials in carry-on luggage.
The new rules are being tested at airports including Los Angeles, Detroit and Boston after commencing in May.
TSA claims some books and food items make it more difficult for scanners to check the contents of bags.
Agents will be able to rummage through books to check for hidden weapons or contraband.
Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told Fox News the new rules are likely to be rolled out nationwide.
He said: “What we’re doing now is working out the tactics, techniques, and procedures, if you will, in a few airports, to find out exactly how to do that with the least amount of inconvenience to the traveler.”
But the increased scrutiny has lead to concern about a possible breach of human rights.
Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said it could lead to discrimination.
In a blog titled ‘New TSA Policy May Lead to Increased Scrutiny of Reading Material’, he wrote: “Books raise very special privacy issues. TSA checkpoints are not general law enforcement stops.
“A person who is reading a book entitled Overcoming Sexual Abuse or Overcoming Sexual Dysfunction is not likely to want to plop that volume down on the conveyor belt for all to see.
“Even someone reading a bestseller like Fifty Shades of Grey or a mild self-help book with a title such as What Should I Do With My Life? might be shy about exposing his or her reading habits.”
The proposed new rules come as Donald Trump’s second travel ban has been partly revived by the US Supreme Court.
Set to affect airports across America, the travel ban will apply to “foreign nationals who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”
The countries include Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen.
