| By Xenono on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 03:41 am: Edit |
Full Article: http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/privacy/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=207400743&subSection=News
Youtube Video on the technology:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMMXO_GmWw0
The movie Total Recall predicted something like this back in 1990.
http://www.ibabuzz.com/politics/wp-content/uploads/2006/12/total-recall-xray-scene.jpg
The Transportation Security Administration on Friday said that it's beginning new pilot tests of millimeter wave scanning technology at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK).
Millimeter wave scanners allow TSA personnel to see concealed weapons and other items that may be hidden beneath clothes.
When the first TSA pilot test of the technology began in October at Phoenix Sky-Harbor International Airport, TSA Administrator Kip Hawley said that agency was committed to protecting passenger privacy and that the potentially revealing body scans would not be stored.
At the time, Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's technology and liberty program, warned that the "strikingly graphic images of passengers' bodies" were an assault on personal dignity and expressed doubt about TSA's ability to safeguard the images.
Such concerns seem all the more reasonable given the government's inability to prevent State Department employees from inappropriately accessing the passport files of presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama.
TSA counters that 90% of passengers subject to secondary screening opt for a millimeter wave scan over a pat down. The agency said that security officers viewing the scans would do so remotely, where they will not be able to recognize passengers but will be able to trigger an alarm if needed. The agency also said that a blurring algorithm is applied to passengers' faces in scanned images as an additional privacy protection.
| By Khun_mor on Monday, April 21, 2008 - 10:50 pm: Edit |
Americans are such prudes.
There's supposedly no recording equipment on the system so how are the images to be abused ? What is there to safeguard? It's not like a photo - it's body outlines only.
Get over it America. No one wants to see 99% of the flabby bodies going thru there anyway .
(Message edited by Khun_Mor on April 21, 2008)
| By Sojourner on Tuesday, April 22, 2008 - 01:20 pm: Edit |
Incidentally, I've seen this technology in place in several Russian airports. I don't necessarily think that means it's a huge invasion of privacy (frankly, I'd prefer they did that than do a body search or open and read my computer!) but then America is full of evangelicals who reportedly have not genitalia and don't want the rest of the country to find out.