Ever since it was developed, federal agencies have defended body scanning that looks under your clothes by saying the images are disposed of immediately. C'mon, you don't really trust your government, do you?As it turns out, the the US Marshals Service has saved tens of thousands of body scan images from a checkpoint at a Florida (of course!) courthouse. And you don't really think they're the only ones? This follows an earlier disclosure 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." Yeah, testing out different jerk-off material. The agency says that those capabilities are not normally activated when the devices are installed at airports. Normally.
The Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington D.C.-based advocacy group, has filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to grant an immediate injunction pulling the plug on TSA's body scanning program. It was in a separate lawsuit that EPIC obtained their smoking gun letter from the Marshals Service that showed the "devices are designed and deployed in a way that allows the images to be routinely stored and recorded".
The letter acknowledged that "approximately 35,314 images...have been stored on the Brijot Gen2 machine" used in the Orlando, FL federal courthouse. The machine uses a millimeter wave radiometer and accompanying video camera to store up to 40,000 images and records - and according to the manufacturer can even be operated remotely: "The Gen 2 detection engine capability eliminates the need for constant user observation and local operation for effective monitoring. Using our APIs, instantly connect to your units from a remote location via the Brijot Client interface."
EPIC's lawsuit says that the TSA should have announced formal regulations, and argues that the body scanners violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits "unreasonable" searches. The TSA maintains that body scanning is perfectly constitutional: "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."
A TSA spokeswoman said that the agency's scanners are delivered to airports with the image recording functions turned off. "We're not recording them...I'm reiterating that to the public. We are not ever activating those capabilities at the airport." Thanks, Sari Koshetz - America can sleep better on your word.
2 comments:
Thing is, though, I can't help but wonder if this is one of those places where the prudery inherent to American society is getting in the way of efficiency. I mean, think about the job, here. You're looking at thousands of average high-BMI Americans, all day, every day. Why would you NOT want someone who got off on voyuerism? Why not get someone who WANTS to look at people without them knowing?
The issue pertains to civil liberties and rights violations rather than job performance. Having registered sex offenders as crossing guards may make the job more pleasant, but still completely unreasonable - and not germane.
Titilating or not, it doesn't change the stakes. But it does explain why my urologist makes house calls.
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