100 Nude-O-Scope images leaked
 

Link to an article just on Drudge...images are from machines used in an Orlando courthouse, and the resolution of the scans is pretty low, but this flies in the face of the "images can't be saved" excuse that's been used by the TSA...

http://gizmodo.com/5690749/

This is a red herring and is only likely to discredit opponents of the scanners. The video is from a US Marshals scanner at a Federal courthouse in Florida. Anyone can dismiss this by pointing out that it wasn't the TSA.

I'm with you on opposing the NOS -- I just don't think this will be a very effective propaganda piece for the anti-scanner/anti-grope crowd.

The images have been out for quite some time, you can see them over at EPIC. They're early generation millimeter wave stuff that were pretty much worthless at detecting anything. They're not the types of detailed images that are currently gathered at airports. I'm worried that people will see those blocky images and believe that's what TSOs see today at the airport, and decide it's not so bad after all... :(

The TSA doesn't operate security at the Orlando federal courthouse, so I'm not sure that's a relevant argument here. The TSA can easily say that their machines are not programmed to do that, and there's nothing here to prove them wrong. Plus, these images are so blurry and non-offensive compared to the airport NOS that many people will see this and say "So THAT'S what the fuss is about?", which could actually be counterproductive.

The title of the headline on Drudge is somewhat misleading too: "TSA XXX: NAKED BODY SCANS LEAK ONLINE"

Agreed that the bad image quality won't help us, but I don't think arguing the machines can save images is a bad thing. That fact has popped up in countless news articles this week alone.

Frankly, I think the onus is on TSA to prove that the machines have been disabled. According to the manufacturer* of the machines that made/saved the courthouse pictures, they come standard with USB and Ethernet ports.

(*You want the 'Gen 2 Product Sheet' link.)

Different agencies have different requirements. I don't believe the US Marshalls ever claimed that they weren't saving images.

I don't doubt that the TSA machines are capable from a hardware standpoint of saving images. I doubt they're lying though when they say that they don't save images. They were most likely delivered with that functionality disabled.

the TSA has / still does.

Basic logical deduction [regarding the use of the body imaging, airport security] makes me doubtful - and who knows - without any code - what really goes on in the software level.

What individuals deduce, infer, or conclude will vary depending on the extent to which they generally trust government, and specifically trust a government to have any priorities higher than its own self-preservation.

From the L3 MMW website:
http://www.sds.l-3com.com/products/mmwave.htm
"Privacy Protection: ProVision offers multiple levels of privacy protection that can be customized to support customer-specific operational procedures."

It's not so much that I trust the TSA. I do trust L3 though to deliver scanners with saving disabled, provided that actually was one of the TSA's requirements. And L3 is perfectly up front about the fact that they can be configured for various levels of privacy.

As incompetent as the TSA is, how often have they flat-out lied about something? Knowing government agencies, if they DID save images and TSA didn't want us to know about it, they'd just tell us that the functionality of the machines is classified.

The machine used in the pics and the video is a passive MMW machine. It uses no radiation.

If you notice on the floor, you'll see there's a circle. You have to spin around to get an image. Airports aren't like that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_EENmY0VNw This is a similar system.

The L3 system I linked to IS the one that TSA is using. So the Marshalls were using different equipment, from a completely different brand? How is that applicable to the TSA then?

What I don't get though is why the TSA insists on using the machines that display nude images instead of the ones with automatic threat detection:
http://www.sds.l-3com.com/advancedim...ovision-at.htm

Ignoring the radiation issue, I would have less qualms about going through the one that doesn't let someone look at my junk.

Crap, sorry. I misread your post.

However, you're right. Why are they using those L3 machines when they can instead use those that protect privacy better, and perhaps, be much less harmful?

The TSA had their information already prepared it seems:

... Transportation Safety Administration would also be saving (and therefore potentially leaking) naked images of random passengers from airport screening lines across the country.

Not true, says a TSA spokesman.

"The (body image scanning) technology is sent to the airports without the ability to save, transmit or print the images," said Greg Soule, TSA spokesman, in an interview with CBSNews.com. "At airports, the images are examined by a security officer in a remote location, and, once the image is cleared, they're deleted."

The confusion over whether the TSA will be saving basically naked body images taken in airport security lines is based on the fact that some other police agencies -- like the U.S. Marshalls for example -- have saved body scan images. Soule insists, however, that the TSA does not, nor will they ever, do so.

...

Soule says EPIC makes that claim because the imaging machines used in the TSA Atlantic City testing lab are designed to store images for training purposes, but that those are the only machines that can do so.

From CBS - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/...n7060608.shtml

I just read One Hundred Naked Citizens: One Hundred Leaked Body Scans as a friend recommended & I'm amazed that the continual lambasting of the TSA system as a bunch of lies to do anything it wishes with the quick self-justification of "security". So much for not being able to save those images; of course the government vendor did just what their client asked for. In this case, it's to save the images. I'm amazed the TSA's formal reply is able to somehow replace reality.