Thursday, August 5, 2010

Okay, so really … how good do you look naked?

US Federal agencies who have argued for the use of x-ray body scanning devices have repeatedly claimed that in recognition of individual privacy rights that the agencies would not store or have the capability to store the images that they capture of people passing through checkpoints which employ the equipment.

The body scanners are controversial to privacy rights groups because the technology produces very detailed images of a person through their clothing rendering them virtually naked to any observer using the device.

The Transportation Security Agency, last summer claimed "scanned images cannot be stored or recorded.".

Yeah, sure.

Word now comes that in contradiction TSA specifications for the scanning equipment that the agency purchases require the scanners to be able to store and transmit images for "testing, training, and evaluation purposes.".

But, TSA promises, the capabilities won’t normally be active.

Wait, it gets better.

The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that without public disclosure this police agency secretly saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a body scanner at a single Florida courthouse.

No word on why or what the final disposition is of the stored images.

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