Thaindian News

By Meena Kar
Aug 5, (THAINDIAN NEWS) The controversy surrounding the full body scanners has just intensified as the US Marshals Service admitted this week that they have saved thousands of images from the body scanners that were placed at a security checkpoint in a Florida courthouse. In spite of the earlier claims by the Transportation and Security Administration (TSA) that the images from the full body scanners cannot be saved, the admission by the federal police agency has put a question mark on the privacy and security of the full body scanners.

Earlier, the EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) had advocated the banning of the devices saying that it had the technology that allowed the images to be saved and transmitted. This was in consideration of the fact that some of the advanced devices could produce images that were so graphic that the privacy advocates said they were equivalent to virtual strip searching. In the UK, minors were barred from going under the scanner with fears of child pornography recently. The detailing of the images depends on the technology of the scanners. EPIC executive director claims that the devices are built and deployed in a way that allows the saving of the images and the US Marshals Service’s recent admittance justifies his claims even more.

The TSA has said that all the scanners at the airports have the ability to save the images but it is purely for training and evaluation purposes. In a blog, it states that it takes additional care to ensure that the officers who are viewing the images cannot see the person being scanned and can communicate with the other officers with a two-way radio device in case of a security threat.