Airport Xrays Render You Naked!

After spending lots of time at the airport lately... Is an invasive pat-down a bad thing?

President Bush's proposed $2.57 trillion federal budget for Fiscal Year 2006 greatly increases the amount of money spent on surveillance technology and programs while cutting about 150 programs?most of them from the Department of Education. EPIC's "Spotlight on Surveillance" project scrutinized these surveillance programs.

Airport security has undergone significant changes since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Recently, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced a proposal to purchase and deploy "backscatter" X-ray machines to search air travelers at select airports. TSA said it believes that use of the machines is less invasive than pat-down searches. However, these machines, which show detailed images of a person's naked body, are equivalent to a "virtual strip search" for all air travelers. This proposal, along with the agency's controversial plan to profile air travelers, shows extraordinary disregard for the privacy rights of air travelers. The Department of Homeland Security is requesting $72 million to invest in detection systems, which includes funding for the backscatter machines, which cost between $100,00 and $200,000 each.

Read the rest at http://www.epic.org/privacy/surveillance/spotlight/0605.html, including pictures this technology produces....