Here's the image that the Transportation Security Administration distributed.
Remember the articles on those full body scans that the Transportation Security Administration is putting into every major airport?
Well, according to this article in Privacy Inc,
“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.”
Orlando, in case you are interested.
The article also reports TSA “requires all airport body scanners it purchases to be able to store and transmit images for ‘testing, training, and evaluation purposes.'”
Airplane passengers have to jump through hoops and our borders are open to the world, go figure.
This is a strip-search, period. It makes no difference that the technology allows it to be done on an industrial scale, it’s a violation of privacy that ultimately has, at best, no effect on safety. At worst, it exposes frequent fliers to elevated doses of x-ray radiation which may cause more deaths by cancer than the terrorists could ever kill with an airplane.
Body-cavities are not revealed, thus making this simply an exercise in power-mongering voyeurism.
You MUST opt-out of these intrusive searches, and maybe be wanded/patted by a same-sex guard. I Opt’ed Out a few months ago, which gave me the opportunity to officially express my displeasure – the smurf wrote down the reason for my opting-out for their official records (it’s a strip-search, I said). I suggest more people do this.
Don’t forget that there is no real way to validate what level of scanning is being done by the TSA. Example images on placards at the airport only show what the government want normal people and potential terrorists to see. If terrorists knew exactly how much scanning was occurring, they could adapt likewise.
Therefore, it is implausible to expect the TSA to be honest about how high the scanning level is set. In effect, the TSA will feed the general public propaganda to stop the enemy from being more diligent in their stealth.
Nice, eh – considering this was the state of the art 4 years ago:
http://rupture.co.uk/Terminal%204.html
(You may have to cut and paste the above link)
The TSA acceptanlce polls quoted date to January, before anybody had any idea about the invasiveness of these machines. Latest poll on NY Times shows 75% AGAINST!
Just remember to say “I OPT-OUT”