[pp.int.general] Flashmob against full body scanners

[Brian McNeil]

On Mon, 2010-01-11 at 14:49 +0100, bakel362 at planet.nl wrote:
> My understanding is that the latest generation of full body scanners
> does not require a human to assess images: it is done by a computer
> (that does not know what a penis is!). If the computer says that the
> person is suspect, further testing is done (but afaik not using the
> image).
>  
> I am not saying that customes authorities have solved the privacy
> problem, but I do believe that a smarter PP response is required to
> this new(?) development. It should be avoided that we cry out for
> privacy - while the respone is: privacy is not affected at all, the
> computer analysind the images is "neutral".
>  
> Does anyone know whether these scanners use X-ray (R"ontgen)? If they
> do, they are a health risk, however low the dose is. X-rays are high
> energy radiation (for thoese not familiar in quantum physics: this is
> not a matter of the amout of energy in watts: it is entirely
> determined by the frequency of the radiation - based on Plancks
> formula). The actual percentage of people contracting cancer because
> of these scans may be low, but a high number of people multiplied by a
> low percentrage still is a substantial number of people. A cynical
> calculation would be to compare that number to the number of potential
> terrorist attack victims. I guess the latter i lower. But rather I
> would say: any checking method affecting health is *wrong*. Affecting
> privacy is bad enough.

Your understanding is wrong; these are not the scanners from Total
Recall.

The RapiScan equipment being installed, and demanded at all
international airports in the US requires human beings reviewing the
images. For privacy, and if you want to be charitable, to mask ethnic
origin, the people viewing the scans are in a separate area from the
scanner and never see the people passing through other than via the
scanner.

Here's a choice quote from the current issue of Private Eye, who
conclude there is little chance these machines will detect the liquid or
plastic explosives terrorist prefer:

"In the week after the attempted bombing, former Bush homeland security
chief Michael Chertoff made the media rounds and was widely quoted
calling for Congress to "fund a large-scale deployment of
next-generation systems" and blaming the American Civil Liberties Union
for making "specious" objections to the machines. Eventually, and only
in response to a direct question on CNN, Chertoff admitted that RapiScan
is a client of his lobbying firm, Chertoff Group."

In a lot of ways, to beat these people you need to "Follow The Money".


-- 
Brian McNeil <brian.mcneil at wikinewsie.org>|http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Brian_McNeil
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