Thu, Jan 14, 2010
Test Mode Allows Images To Be Saved, Transmitted
Since their introduction, privacy advocates
have publicly worried that images from full-body scans at the
airport might wind up on the internet. TSA assured us on its
website that "The machines have zero storage capability."
At some airports where the technology is in use, TSA plays a video
in the screening area which asserts, "...the system has no way to
save, transmit or print the image."
But CNN reports that EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information
Center, found that the machines have a test mode in which the
images can not only be stored, but transmitted. EPIC Executive
Director Marc Rotenberg says that opens the possibilities of abuse
by insiders, or even hackers. The "Level Z" authority for TSA
allows the security agency to disable privacy filters and to export
raw image files.
EPIC obtained the information on the machines through a Freedom of
Information Act request. Rotenberg is critical of what he calls
"slick promotion" by the TSA. "[I]f you look at the actual
technical specifications and you read the vendor contracts, you
come to understand that these machines are capable of doing far
more than the TSA has let on."
TSA has responded by saying adequate safeguards are in place. The
officer viewing the images cannot see the passenger being scanned,
the machines are not networked and cannot be hacked, no cellphones
or other photographic devices are allowed in the viewing rooms, and
violators are subject to serious discipline or removal.
All of which may be true, but then YouTube is filled with bootleg
concert videos from venues where no cameras are allowed, and TSA
reportedly has declined to cooperate in the prosecution of its
workers when they're caught stealing at airports, citing security
concerns.
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