More Virtual Strip Search backlash
 

Looks like more media outlets are latching on to this virtual strip-search stuff.

Story.

I saw brief news coverage on the CW channel early this morning, including a divided screen shot of the image. :eek:

Line of the century:

""It basically just let's us know if there is anything out of the ordinary sticking out, their belt, a cell phone," said Dede Colton, an imaging operator with TSA."

Well, sir -- you're certainly out of the ordinary! How does dinner sound?

May I suggest an e-mail to Lillie Coney at Epic thanking her for bringing the matter of the MMWs to the fore and encouraging Epic and its partners to vigorously pursue ending mandatory use of the machines by travelers.

[email protected]

The CNN atricle ... I love it for it's honesty. That small image is not much larger than the PR images the TSA gives us, but we can clearly see the guy in the picture is hanging to the left. The TSA tells us we can't see that detail.

Heh. I missed seeing page 2 of the images on the CNN article. It definitely wouldn't pass the Mull of Kintyre test.

Hey y'all want to put NSFW tags on those links. Seriously, you can see the man's doodle clearly.

I guess we will have to start wearing the "I was in the pool" t-shirts to explain shrinkage.

HA, I almost spit Diet Pepsi onto my computer!:D

He isn't hanging anywhere...he is clearly in need of some 'pharmaceutical' assistance for that little thing.

I'm glad someone finally brought this debate to public light - but we've been down this road before. Eventually the hooplah dies out, people grow tired of listening to the nonsense peddled by the talking head pundits and the TSA goes back on its merry way, making life miserable for everyone...in the name of security, of course.

Don't give up so easily - Kippie told Bruce Schneier in July of '07 that the backscatter was stopped due to complaints about privacy and explicitness. And remember that this was after Chertoff said he didn't want to hear any whining about privacy when the backscatter was introduced.

Both of which, especially the cell phone, will be picked up by the WTMD.

Try again Dede :td:

EPIC campaign to suspend WBI - link to petition
 

The US Privacy Coalition is requesting sign on to Stop whole body imaging in US airports!

The Electronic Privacy Information Center has announced a national campaign today to suspend the use of "Whole Body Imaging" -- devices that photograph American air travellers stripped naked in US airports. The campaign responds to a policy reversal by the TSA which would now make the the "virtual strip search" mandatory, instead of voluntary as originally announced. EPIC and others say that there are inadequate safeguards to prevent the misuse of the images. They are asking Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to suspend the program and to allow for public comment. For more information, see EPIC's Backscatter X-ray, Whole Body Imaging page.

If you are US Citizen or if you travel to the US, you might be affected with this provisions. Join the sign on, and make your voice be heard.


Sign on the letter here:

http://privacycoalition.org/stopwholebodyimaging/

I signed it. I am curious to see if I magically land on the no-fly list now...

I have entered my name, anonymous as well as my e-mail address and it keeps telling me:

"It appears you entered an invalid email address

Click here to go back."

Lydia

I presume this means that belts have to come off when using the MMW. Nice, now people will be waddling through the machine to try to keep their pants from falling down.

BTW, did you all notice that the MMW is now being called the WBI for Whole Body Imaginging? A tactic designed to throw some off the track?

There was a Google News link about privacy advocates criticizing the program in a trade journal just now. It turned out to be a dead link, but when I used a keyword search I came up with this. Have they been reading the TS/S Forum Glossary?


http://i29.photobucket.com/albums/c2...8e7dk48s3w.jpg

Not waddling through, doober. They will be standing still with their hands held over their heads. Those pants are definitely heading south.

See, being old fashioned does have some merit. I wear braces!

Pants falling down? A TSO once suggested I lose some weight because my jeans were about to fall. Was concerned about that once. Now the jeans fall where they may and let them deal with the sight.

This whole conversation comes down to a single point. One that everyone here has missed completely.

If a tree fall in the forest and there is no one around, does it make a noise? Logic says yes, but it cant be proven.

My point is, what does a passenger care if their image is being viewed by some anonymous individual in a remote location, who cannot see the person and wouldn’t know if it was their sister, brother, or mother and is unable to associate that image with a person. To that person viewing the picture, its nothing more than a very low quality black and white picture of what “may” or “may not” be a person. And like I said over at EOS, 99.4% of the humans in this country should not EVER be seen in the nude. Myself included. Personally, I would find that to be the worst part of having one of these machines in my airport. Worse than being forced to watch Sponge-Bob for hours on end.

with that logic why arrest peeping toms? if you dont know they are there what is the harm? plese dont even attempt to defend this stupid practice. you will NEVER catch a terrorist with one of these stupid machines....

It is critical that americans stop, by any means necessary, the implementation of the millimetre wave machines and the puffers. They are an unnecessary invasion of ones privacy and once they are in widespread use, even more invasive processes and technologies will likely be rolled out.

It can be proven that if a tree falls in the forest and there is no one around that it still makes a noise, so I don't know what to make of the attempt to argue by analogy other than an attempt to argue by analogy is a poor application of logic even if it is useful for spin doctors and their rhetorical effect.

Checkmate!

It's not a matter of what our bodies look like. It is a sense of modicy that some people have and it is a matter of personal privacy.

This machine demeans a person.

When will TSA break out the Zyklon B?

Actually I find this a very tempting opportunity. I'll have to find out when the airports near me install this.

That way I can go to expedia and see what their cheapest ticket to anywhere is.

Then I and my kid will go through. And once we are on the other side I'll dial 911 and report a case of child pornography. I'll get the entire TSA branch arrested at once.

So tempting...

Just a thought, but ...
If a tree falls in the forest, there aren't other trees standing on the edge of a nearby meadow taking pictures of it and rubbing their now turgid member's up and down, nor trying to sell images of said tree to other perverted trees around the forest. Moreover, if the tree has the wrong bark colour and leaf shape, was critical of the ongoing holocaust against Palestinians, or the wholesale murder of Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistanis in the war of terror, it doesn't have to worry that it wont be threatened by racist, establishment trees with the public release of the pictures of it falling if it doesn't follow and wholeheartedly support today's talking points from O'Reilly and aipac. In other words, the tree's deciduous rights are protected while it falls.

Please do this. It's extremely important.

I'm not even getting a text field to enter an email address...

Click one of the other options, not as an AirTraveler. Then it gives you the option of name, org, and email.

Has EPIC been alerted to this issue? It would be a darned shame if they did not repair this and lose substantial input.

Can't say. My gmail/hotmail is currently unavailable at work :td:, otherwise I'd shoot them an email.

Borrowing an analogy from someone else - Swish, nothing but net! :D

Maybe that's why Bob delete-o-meters my posts. I didn't save what I posted for your deleted posts thread, but I think I described the angle of the dangle in the second CNN image as slightly below horizontal. I went on to say that if they degraded the image enough to make its genital imaging non-pornographic, then it wouldn't be useful enough for screening.

I guess the "optional" option that TSA wilfully consented to is the NSFW one.

I'll do it.

Me too. I said that we can clearly see he's hanging to the left, and that was much to graphic for Blogdad Bob's sensitivities.

Blogdad Bob is getting a little testy, not liking that people are accusing the TSOs of being child pornographers and threatening them with arrest.

Wait until he sees my most recent comment where I remind him that since TSOs are liable to arrest for child pornography the rest of the TSA is liable for conspiracy to commit or aiding and abetting. That might have Bob himself sweating bullets.

I have decided (and just posted such on PV) that I am going to do the following:

1. Make a large stack of 8.5" x 11" copies of the released WBI images
2. Carry them in my laptop bag, in a dedicated folder labeled "Confidential - Strip Search Evidence" in metal foil
3. Use them as educational media anytime I witness someone being forced, or volunteering, to go through the MMW

Well we just lost the male Japanese market in the US:D

I think Bob's about to have a nervous breakdown, judging from his last few posts.