Practical Travel Safety Issues - ACLU Backgrounder on Body Scanners and “Virtual Strip Searches”




Trollkiller
Jan 8, 10, 3:07 pm
http://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/aclu-backgrounder-body-scanners-and-%E2%80%9Cvirtual-strip-searches%E2%80%9D

In the wake of the attempted terrorist attack by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in December 2009, some have called for the widespread integration of “whole body imaging” machines into routine airline security procedures. (See www.aclu.org/airlinesecurity for broader information on airline security).

Widespread deployment of body scanners does not make sense as a response to the Abdulmutallab attack. This technology should not be used as part of a routine screening procedure, but only when the facts and circumstances suggest that it is the most effective method for a particular individual. And such technology may be used in place of an intrusive search, such as a strip search – when there is reasonable suspicion sufficient to support such a search.
This technology involves a striking and direct invasion of privacy. It produces strikingly graphic images of passengers’ bodies, essentially taking a naked picture of air passengers as they pass through security checkpoints. It is a virtual strip search that reveals not only our private body parts, but also intimate medical details like colostomy bags. Many people who wear adult diapers feel they will be humiliated. That degree of examination amounts to a significant assault on the essential dignity of passengers. Some people do not mind being viewed naked but many do and they have a right to have their integrity honored.

PLEASE READ IT ALL


bocastephen
Jan 8, 10, 3:16 pm
The problem is the ACLU has reduced itself to a purveyor of sound bites. No longer interested in taking on legal challenges and fighting tooth and nail for our rights and liberties, they are more often content to publish an opinion piece and move on to something else.

Very sad - and they won't get a dime of support from me until they re-learn how to take the gloves off.

Unimatrix One
Jan 8, 10, 5:23 pm
Didn't the ACLU recently lose their largest source of funding (due to financial hardship of the donor)? They may not have the money to launch many legal challenges anymore.




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