Blog posts 'nude body scanner pics' online to highlight pressing dangers to privacy

[Sandra]

Blog posts 'nude body scanner pics' online to highlight pressing dangers to privacy
Florida Statesman
Wednesday 17th November, 2010
(ANI)

Gizmodo, the website that posted dozens of pictures of visitors to a Florida courthouse being x-rayed by the controversial new body scanners
revealing their intimate body parts, has said that despite TSA's claim
of eliminating identifying features, there remains the danger of similar
pictures being viewed by others in the near future.

According to the Daily Mail, the 100 images show visitors to a Florida
courthouse standing inside the machine as it takes their photograph,
their intimate body parts clearly visible.

They were posted by technology blog Gizmodo after it emerged that US
Marshals at the court had saved 35,000 images in breach of official
rules.

Gizmodo, which published the saved images, has admitted that they were
not high quality but said the breach of security was significant. Under
the Freedom of Information Act, it has put a selection of photographs
online, taking care to mask the identities of all involved.

A website has now been reportedly set up urging a public show of
defiance on the day before Thanksgiving by refusing to cooperate if
asked to go through a scanner. nder regulations drawn up by the
Transportation Security Administration and other government bodies,
which use the scanners, images taken by them should be 'automatically
deleted from the system after it is cleared by the remotely located
security officer'.

Images from the scans cannot be saved or printed, according to the TSA.
Faces are blurred and agents who directly interact with passengers do
not see the scans, the paper said.

More recent scanners reportedly have significantly sharper cameras, which means there would be more detail on their images.

The Gizmodo editors wrote on their blog: "We understand that it will be
controversial to release these photographs but identifying features
have been eliminated. And fortunately for those who walked through the
scanner in Florida last year, this mismanaged machine used the less
embarrassing imaging technique."

"Yet the leaking of these photographs demonstrates the security
limitations of not just this particular machine...but body scanners
operated by federal employees in our courthouses and by TSA officers in
airports across the country. That we can see these images today almost
guarantees that others will be seeing similar images in the future. If
you're lucky, it might even be a picture of you or your family," he
added.

The row over airport scanners erupted last week when software developer
John Tyner, secretly recorded himself telling a TSA security guard: 'If
you touch my junk I will have you arrested' during an airport pat-down.

Pilots and passengers alike have voiced their suspicion that privacy is being ignored in the quest for greater 'security'. (ANI)