Bringing equality to airport backscatter scanners
Airport backscatter scanner sample images
Update: I sent a question along the lines of this post to the Federal Office of Transport Security, and received this response:
“As part of the preparation for the trial the concern that screeners may attempt to make copies of the body scanner images was raised. As a protection against this possibility the screeners viewing body scanner images will be monitored by security camera and recorded to ensure that they are not making copies of the images or doing anything inappropriate. The security camera is positioned so that it cannot see the images on screen. Also the screens used to view the body scanner images will be fitted with privacy filters so that only a screening officer seated directly in front can view the screen. This security camera footage will not be available to the passengers being screened however.”
The Federal Office of Transport Security will shortly begin trials of new aviation screening technologies, designed to detect weapons, explosives and other prohibited items from being taken aboard aircraft.
These semi-intrusive searches, which will show passengers’ genitals, have raised eyebrows in the media – and forced the Feds to spend a lot of time talking about your privacy. Here are some security ‘features’:
Faces are automatically blurred. The security officer analysing your image is located away from the security lane and cannot see you. Images are not saved and cannot be transferred to anybody else.
I don’t think this is good enough. (“Don’t worry about the man looking through your bedroom window. He doesn’t have a camera.”) I think passengers undergoing screening should have the reassurance that the remotely-stationed screening officer is behaving appropriately – not mocking them, not saving photos with a mobile phone, and so on.
While the screening is taking place, I should have the opportunity to observe the observer. In a neat reversal of standard intrusive surveillance guidelines, “if they’ve got nothing to hide, they’ve got nothing to worry about.” But what are the chances they’ll include reverse surveillance in their panopticon?