Feds admit storing checkpoint body scan images

I'm shocked, shocked! that electronic strip searches might be misused by the crack team of professionals at the TSA.<p>This is very simple:<p>(a) call these things what they are: electronic strip searches.<p>(b) refuse to submit to them at the airport.<p>I just did this on a flight from Kansas City. Guess what? Not a big deal. You'll get the same pat-down search you get when you're "randomly selected for additional screening", which is not a big deal. It'll add 5 minutes to the security line for you.<p>To those who suggest that the pat-down searches are as intrusive or more intrusive than the electronic strip searches: no. By and large, the human beings manning the security checkpoints are as squeamish about invading the personal space of another actual human being looking them in the eyes as you are about having your space invaded.<p>The same is not true of a series of images on a screen in an isolated room. Images on screens are not people. There is no social conditioning that normal human beings have that will cause people to automatically respect images on a screen.<p>Step 1 in defending your rights from ludicrous invasions like this: be an actual person, not an abstraction.

Great quote in this article:<p>"For its part, the TSA says that body scanning is perfectly constitutional: "The program is designed to respect individual sensibilities regarding <i></i>privacy, modesty and personal autonomy to the maximum extent possible<i></i>, while still performing its crucial function of protecting all members of the public from potentially catastrophic events."<p>Of course, the <i>weasel words</i>, "to the maximum extent possible" render this a mere sentiment, at fucking best (as Zed might say), meaning of course that your "privacy, modesty and personal autonomy" are toast.

The title of this submission is false, why did you change it? A federal courthouse in Florida admits to storing the images, not TSA. TSA only admits the machines have the capability to store images, which they say are only used for training/testing purposes.

EPIC is a reputable organization, and have filed a federal lawsuit to help stop this practice. I just sent them a donation, and encourage others to do the same.

I am not a constitutional scholar, but this seems like a violation of the Fourth Amendment. I would likely put random bag searches, and pat-down searches in that category as well.<p>As an American citizen, without reasonable suspicion of criminal intent, why are searches of this type legal? Has this been challenged in the Supreme Court?

Every time the TSA rambles on about how giving up this little bit of freedom saves your life from terrorism, I wonder why a journalist doesn't hit them up for comment on the (perhaps apocryphal) quote "Those who would give up their liberty for security deserve neither".

If there any substance -- for example, a deodorant or lotion with a specific ingredient -- which would allow drawing a picture or words on your body for the scan-reviewers to see?

All hope for is that they will design a scanner that scans me and my backpack instantly as I walk through it so I can arrive at the airport 20 minutes before the flight and not to wait in line to take out my laptop and remove my shoes. I can even pay $10 every time I go though such device to get to my plane faster.<p>And as for some overpaid TSA agent seeing me "naked"? You know, I really don't care.

In the brave new USA, you can tell they are lying when their lips are moving. They can make claims like this, that the machines' scans cannot be stored, with no basis in fact whatsoever and suffering no real consequences for the lying. I wish this were the only recent example of this sort of pathological lying by the government's corporate mercenaries.

they can justify any security measure imaginable.<p>i wonder if there's a defense to this intrusion and if it would constitute a crime to bear one.<p>this is where things start to get a little scary.