Body scanners can store, send images, group says

[friendly_iconoclast]

Source: CNN


Body scanners can store, send images, group says

By Jeanne Meserve and Mike M. Ahlers, CNN
January 11, 2010 12:01 p.m. EST

Washington (CNN) -- A privacy group says the Transportation Security Administration is misleading the public with claims that full-body scanners at airports cannot store or send their graphic images.

The TSA specified in 2008 documents that the machines must have image storage and sending abilities, the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) said.

In the documents, obtained by the privacy group and provided to CNN, the TSA specifies that the body scanners it purchases must have the ability to store and send images when in "test mode."

That requirement leaves open the possibility the machines -- which can see beneath people's clothing -- can be abused by TSA insiders and hacked by outsiders, said EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg....


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TRAVEL/01/11/body.scanners /

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Say cheese!

[texastoast]

1. Well, yah

It's just one great old big .jpg.

[izquierdista]

2. However, if you NEED an x-ray or CAT scan

Insurance won't cover it.

[Frank Booth]

3. What I want to know is:

Who gives a shit? And why?

[PSPS]

5. Because there are many in the country that prefer not being under the jack boot

You may find it hard to believe, but not everyone cowers under their bed, wetting themselves, because the world is not a utopia. Why willingly subjugate yourself to a police state in which you have no expectation of privacy whatsoever? For what you perceive as "security?" Do you really think the TSA fiasco is intended to impart any security?

[Frank Booth]

7. I'd question the courage of anyone who is scared that a chalk-outline

image of their body may be preserved and *gasp* spread on the internet.

Are you against metal detectors too? Because I don't see how these body scanners are any worse.

[daleo]

6. Quaint notions like privacy

And books by this fellow named George Orwell.

[Frank Booth]

9. Please explain to me how this guy's privacy is being violated?

I guess he probably wouldn't want people to see the gun. And he probably wouldn't want people to see the big fat rolls around his waist -- but unless he was wearing a giant parka the fat would be obvious without the scanner.

But, in any case, it doesn't matter, since nobody can possibly identify him from this image.

This hysteria over such a completely innocuous safety device is stunning.

[winyanstaz]

15. that is a photoshopped image....

most likely from the ministry of propaganda itself.
sheesh...
and maybe you dont mind your genitals being displayed to the world but other people do.
Why dont all you people that are such damned cowards you want everyones body on display...just fly in an all naked jet with your hands and feet shackled. I am sure you will feel safer then.

[Frank Booth]

17. Have you ever been to a doctor?

If so, at one time or other, I assume they looked at your genitals. This is a lot more anonymous than that. And the poor sap who's going to have to review these images is going to be looking at thousands a day. So I really doubt that he's going to care whether the 684th male of the day who's anywhere from 35 to 65 years old and is slightly short and overweight has a small penis.

[winyanstaz]

25. so..if it's so non-invasive then lets have Obama's wife and kids go through first...

And put the pictures out there to prove there is nothing invasive or dangerious.
We wont even be able to tell it is them if it is all that anonymous.
I am sure then America will feel fine about having camera strip seaches done.

[lunatica]

40. Hey! How about scans of ALL politicians too?!

That'll be one thing they can't lie about.

[no limit]

31. Can you please post nude pictures of yourself on the internet? Obivous you might as well

this doesn't seem to bother you. And really nice posting a photoshop image with the genitals cut out, what a great way to prove everyone's point.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

43. Sometimes when people are raped

the rapist looks at their genitals.

[PSPS]

22. Don't be silly. This would be picked up on any metal detector.

[daleo]

32. I have seen images much clearer than this

The point of privacy is that the individual gets to decide what they want to reveal. You may think this is no big deal, but that's not your decision to make for other people. That's what privacy means.

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

41. You don't understand, this is just the start. Wait about a few years

the Xray machines will get better and so will the images. Today every thing is black & white, wait until they come out and install color.

I don't think the Xray's will be an anonymous anymore.

[Justitia]

8. Maybe I don't want the world knowing when I'm on my period, w/pictures.

Or my aunt doesn't want to explain to some TSA goon what a colostomy bag is.

Leaving completely aside the issue of non-medical radiation which we are both supposed to be avoiding.

[Frank Booth]

10. There's an easy solution: don't fly.

Or, and I don't mean to be blunt, but you could wake up to the fact that nobody cares if you're on your period, and just about everyone knows what a colostomy bag is, and I'm sure the TSA "goons" have all been trained to recognize one.

[Justitia]

11. Maybe YOU don't have any women in your life you care about, but the rest of us do.

And sorry, I don't see why just because the gov't can't get it's shit together the rest of us have to give up our personal liberty to move freely about.

What a fucking sheep you sound like.

[Frank Booth]

13. Please.

I think the only type of person who would think ill of a woman on her period is someone who hates women. Everyone else realizes that it's a natural part of life.

[Justitia]

16. Yeah, well, you just posted a lot of smack about women on their periods & with colostomies

so I pretty much already put you in the women-hating category.

[Frank Booth]

18. You're free to do that, of course,

even if you're not making any sense.

[paulsby]

34. i would bet dollars to doughnuts that same people who claim americans are too uptight about nudity

are the ones getting histrionic about an anonymous scanned image being viewed by security personnel.

i could cut the irony with a ladle

[boppers]

45. Yeah! Women should be protected from prying eyes!

Burquas for every one of 'em!

[PSPS]

23. You're the sniveling, self-soiling coward. Maybe it's you who shouldn't fly.

[Frank Booth]

24. Let me see . . .

So you (1) are scared that someone will quickly glimpse a picture of your silhouette, and (2) fly off the handle when reading anonymous posts on a message board.

I can see why you don't want to pass through airport security.

[TheWatcher]

42. Actually, maybe it's just that they find cowardly, Police State Apologists annoying.

I know I do.

[winyanstaz]

26. sure..they are so highly trained ...

that they shut down the airport because of six jars of honey...which they claimed might be explosives and complained of "noxious fumes" and took the day off to go to the hospital.....riiight...those goons?

[wickerwoman]

47. Also, tried to get a diabetic man to inject his insulin

to prove that it was actually insulin (could have killed him if he had done it.)

And made a woman drink her own breast milk.

Yes, these are the highly trained professionals who will instantly recognize all medical devices and let people with the embarrassing ones through unhassled.

Still haven't addressed the radiation issue either...

And unfortunately "not flying" isn't an option for me, since I live and work in New Zealand and have family in the US. Can't really take off three months for a boat trip, can I?

[daleo]

33. Do you think this will only ever apply to flying?

Once this starts, who knows where it will stop. Trains? Buses? Malls? Theaters? Sporting events? Universities? High schools?

Here's a better idea. Let airlines offer two flights on popular flights - a full body-scan flight for those afraid of terrorists and one with old fashioned security for those willing to take a chance. It would be interesting to see how people would vote with their feet.

[BP2]

4. Not too comforting if you have young children going through the scanners. eom

[winyanstaz]

12. what do you wanna bet that these body images are going to occasionally...

be sent to these people's home computers to be enjoyed at their leasure.
There is no way in hell I will ever fly while those things are up and running nor will I let my grandkids get on a plane if I can help it.

[applegrove]

14. Oh who cares. The hold option was for training purposes only. Let's say

they catch someone. Don't you want them to be able to keep the body scan that found something in someones underwear so they can use it as evidence in a trial?

Nobody is going to keep a naked picture of you or anyone else. Nobody cares.

[tinrobot]

19. Can they transmit them to my radiologist, please?

I could save a lot of money on hospital bills by getting my full body scan at the airport.

[troubledamerican]

20. Some juicy political blackmail possibilities also being overlooked

[VanW]

30. Imagine all the celebrities going through LAX

TMZ will have more material than they can handle.

[troubledamerican]

37. Imagine the blackmail on Glenn "Micropenis" Beck, Bill "Victoria's Secret" O'Reilly, and

all the other "journalists" conscripted into supporting the upcoming 2015 military coup.

[Guilded Lilly]

21. Here's an idea...

because we will never be able to fly again without our total loss of privacy, and that as soon as all these scanners are in use the terrorist types will start putting things inside body cavities...and won't THAT be an interesting phenomenon to try and catch with the rest of the flying population...let's say we trade the invasive scans that WILL be able to be copied and saved (if there is a questionable call, you think they REALLY will have destroyed the possible evidence?) for everyone to be given a seat that fits their particular body size/leg room needs...and a whole can of whatever drink they want, FREE, plus the ability to use a blanket and keep their hands in their laps for the ENTIRE ride if they want?

and maybe next time I won't use such a damned long run on sentence.
Peace,
Lilly

[winyanstaz]

27. If the "terrorists" start sticking things into body cavities...

America will have to submit to full cavity searches before flying...and then fly naked with their hands and feet shackled to the bench...and then maybe the cowards that want to give up everyone else's civil rights can feel "safe"...

[juno jones]

28. I can see it now.

"The Cootchie Bomber", "The Anal Bomber" anybody?

I always hated flying and I'm glad I won't have to do it any more. If I ever get off this contintent, I'm going by ship.

[Shallah Kali]

35. A cavity bomb was used in an assination attempt upon a saudi prince last year - link

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/28/eveningnews/m...

To get his bomb into this room, Abdullah Asieri, one of Saudi Arabia's most wanted men, avoided detection by two sets of airport security including metal detectors and palace security. He spent 30 hours in the close company of the prince's own secret service agents - all without anyone suspecting a thing.

snip

Taking a trick from the narcotics trade - which has long smuggled drugs in body cavities - Asieri had a pound of high explosives, plus a detonator inserted in his rectum.

snip

"This is the nightmare scenario," said Chris Yates, an aviation security consultant.

On a plane at altitude, the effects of such a bomb could be catastrophic. And there is no current security system that could stop it.

"Absolutely nothing other than to require people to strip naked at the airport," said Yates.

[Bragi]

29. Privacy and dignity are connected /nt

[amborin]

36. money trail: who benefits from them?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[Buns_of_Fire]

38. Like everything else, it's all in the marketing.

Have a licensed physician manning the scanner and tout it as a free MRI for all passengers.

("Nekkid Airlines -- An Idea Whose Time Has Truly Come" (tm))

[lunatica]

39. I foresee scandals

When it comes to the possibility of using something for porn and profit chances are 100% that it will happen.

[Paul E Ester]

44. All paranoid

This won't be a problem at all.



source http://www.bild.de/BILD/news/bild-english/world-news/20...

[Nihil]

46. Whoops ...

That didn't take long did it?



(I work in a different industry now but started off doing
image processing so it's not exactly a surprise that someone
was "inspired" to do this as a quick demonstration of the
lies put out by the tossers in charge of "security" ...
all it took was an attractive subject rather than the
"safe & comfortable" images shown to calm down the fears
of the public.)