Body Scans Saved After All: 100 Images Now on the Internet

The American technology blog Gizmodo.com has published 100 body scans that have erroneously been saved by a courthouse in Florida. It is now feared that the more detailed “striptease” images from airport scanners will land on the streets. The blog got the images in its possession after an appeal [was filed] on the American law regarding government information. The Department of Homeland Security has always said that the option to save images is disabled by default. But it is possible after all: Even sending images is an option for test purposes and training, a spokesperson admitted to a member of Congress. This was not the case in the courthouse: A stunning 30,000 images of government employees and civilians have been saved during regular checks. Gizmodo and other blogs screamed that they were “nude pictures.” But the scans come from the Gen 2 millimeter wave scanner — a machine that produces such grainy images that a foot bears more resemblance to a cotton swab.

The body scanners that have come into use at airports this year are pretty near to what American bloggers call a “striptease.” In England, a customs officer even received a complaint because he was peeping at his female colleague when she accidentally stood in the scanner.

Gizmodo warns that images of airport scanners will land on the streets as well sooner or later. These Advanced Imaging Technology scanners are, in contrast to those in the courthouse, optional: You are allowed to refuse. According to a poll by CBS News, 81 percent of the public supports its use, and only 1 percent would in practice choose what Homeland Security calls “alternative screening procedures.”

But there is also commotion over that alternative screening. That search is much more intimate than passengers are used to. Where a body scan is called a “striptease,” Kate Hinni, founder of the FlyersRights.org foundation, compares alternative searching procedures to “foreplay.” The customs officer does not pat anymore, but wipes your body with his or her hands. Rosemary Fitzpatrick, a reporter for CNN, said that a female customs officer touched her breasts, stomach, buttocks, thighs and loin. “I felt helpless, I felt violated, and I felt humiliated.” A petition against this type of searches and the body scanner has already been signed by 1,575 people.