Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Checking Out Your Junk

Next thing you know, it’ll be on Youtube. 

For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they’re viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that “scanned images cannot be stored or recorded.”

Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse.

This follows an earlier disclosure (PDF) by the TSA that it requires all airport body scanners it purchases to be able to store and transmit images for “testing, training, and evaluation purposes.” The agency says, however, that those capabilities are not normally activated when the devices are installed at airports.

Body scanners penetrate clothing to provide a highly detailed image so accurate that critics have likened it to a virtual strip search. Technologies vary, with millimeter wave systems capturing fuzzier images, and backscatter X-ray machines able to show precise anatomical detail. The U.S. government likes the idea because body scanners can detect concealed weapons better than traditional magnetometers.

(2) Comments
Posted by Owen at 1708 hrs
Politics + Politics - General + Technology

  1. I’m very tired of the government lying to the people.

    Absolute transparency from our government is needed.

    The sad part is that I’m sure there are legitimate reasons to save images for at least a shot period of time.  Maybe for example for investigative purposes if a plane goes down.

    Yet the default setting for our government is to lie to us even about small issues like keeping these images.

    Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on August 04, 2010 at 2110 hrs


  2. I like to do this thing, because after i check out of my junk. i feel that i am very relaxed.

    Posted by christian louboutin on August 05, 2010 at 0438 hrs


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