LOS ANGELES – (YBH) – Last summer, the Transportation Security Administration was reassuring those with privacy concerns that scanned images from the new airport full body scan machines “cannot be stored or recorded.” This summer, the TSA has admitted that the U.S. Marshals Service has saved literally thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse. Already this year, it has come out that the TSA required that all body scanners being purchased with Federal funds have the ability to store and transmit images, claiming the images are needed for “testing, training, and evaluation purposes.” Since that disclosure, the agency has said that those capabilities are not normally activated when the devices are installed at airports.
Homeland Security Head Janet Napolitano
Body scanner technologies deliver results ranging from fuzzy results to stunningly precise detail, especially with the use of backscatter X-ray machines. The upside is concealed weapons can be easily spotted. The downside, say critics, is the loss of privacy, not to mention modesty. Just two weeks ago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano revealed scanners would soon appear in New York City, Dallas, Washington, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, and Philadelphia. A Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, has filed suit, asking a federal judge to grant an immediate injunction to halt the TSA’s body scanning program. EPIC, through sources, had found the evidence of the Marshals Service Florida courthouse image storage.
Privacy advocates note that the bit-by-bit disclosures about what TSA scanners can and may do is what is concerning. EPIC’s lawsuit has several points, among them, that they TSA should have announced formal regulations. They further argue that the virtual searches violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits “unreasonable” searches. The Feds, as represented by the TSA, have firmly averred that “the program is designed to respect individual sensibilities regarding privacy, modesty and personal autonomy to the maximum extent possible, while still performing its crucial function of protecting all members of the public from potentially catastrophic events.”
EPIC’S staff and lobbying work are funded by attorneys working pro bono, and a number of foundations and individuals with overlapping concerns about privacy, personal rights, and technology. Contributors include Red Hat, specialists in website security and cloud computing, the Rockefeller Family Fund, Sun Microsystems, Earthlink, the Omidyar Network, created by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, focusing on micro loans to the poorest of the poor and transparency in government, left-leaning Working Assets, resellers of telecommunications products, and Zero Knowledge, data encryption specialists.
Related posts:
- Police believe New York body is Craigslist prostitute
- Science! Body suit may soon enable the paralyzed to walk – latimes.com
- London Riots: Iran Media Using Archived Images To Portray Uprising
Laura spent years as a Hollywood story analyst, did a big 180, and is now an entrepreneur focused on web marketing and analytics. She's also a mom of one.Laura Glendinning article archive.
