[Infowarrior] - House curbs 'virtual strip searches' at airports

[Richard Forno]

House curbs 'virtual strip searches' at airports
by Declan McCullagh

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10258700-38.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

WASHINGTON--The Transportation Security Agency's plans to use X-rays  
to peek under air travelers' clothes may soon be shelved.

In a 310-118 vote on Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives  
approved legislation that curbs the growing use of what critics call  
"virtual strip searches" at airport checkpoints.

Privacy groups say that the low-energy backscatter X-rays allow "a  
highly realistic image to be reconstructed... of the traveler's nude  
form" that's "detailed enough to show genitalia." The TSA, on the  
other hand, says it has made improvements to its scanning technology  
including a "privacy algorithm" that will provide the operator with  
vaguer outlines of body parts. (See related CBS News video.)

The House vote attached an amendment drafted by Rep. Jason Chaffetz, a  
Utah Republican, to a broader TSA bill.

TSA's X-ray backscatter scanning with "privacy filter," front view
(Credit: TSA.gov)

Chaffetz's amendment says that whole body imaging "may not be used" as  
the primary method of passenger screening, and that passengers have  
the right to refuse it and "shall be offered a pat-down search" as an  
alternative. It also prohibits the storage or transmission of the  
whole-body images after they're no longer necessary for screening.

"Whole-body imaging is exactly what it says; it allows TSA employees  
to conduct the equivalent of a strip search," Chaffetz said in a  
statement after the vote. "Nobody needs to see my wife and kids naked  
to secure an airplane."

Chaffetz had first introduced the measure as a standalone bill in  
April. His original bill made it a federal crime for a TSA screener to  
share or copy a passenger image; that penalty vanished in the final  
version attached as an amendment.

Backscatter X-rays are relatively low-power and are believed to be  
safe even for frequent flyers. One manufacturer, Rapiscan Systems,  
boasts that its equipment can detect "explosives, narcotics, ceramic  
weapons" such as ceramic knives that traditional metal detectors  
can't. (A competing technology is called millimeter wave.)

On May 31, a coalition of advocacy groups including the ACLU, the  
Electronic Privacy Information Center, Gun Owners of America, and the  
Consumer Federation of America sent a letter to Homeland Security  
Secretary Janet Napolitano asking her to "suspend the program until  
the privacy and security risks are fully evaluated."

TSA says that it's currently using millimeter wave technology at 19  
U.S. airports, including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, and  
Washington Reagan National.

During the Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference on Tuesday in  
Washington, D.C., Peter Pietra, the TSA's director for privacy policy  
and compliance, defended full-body scanning technology. (See CNET's  
2006 interview with Pietra.)

"It's much better for me than going through a magnetometer," Pietra  
said. There's "an awful lot of work that's gone into it." Any  
suggestions on how to improve the privacy of the screening process, he  
said, could be sent to tsaprivacy at dhs.gov.

On Thursday, the full House approved the Transportation Security  
Administration Authorization Act by a vote of 397 to 25. Now the bill  
heads to the Senate, which could choose to preserve or strip out the  
privacy amendments.
Declan McCullagh, CBSNews.com's chief political correspondent,  
chronicles the intersection of politics and technology. He has covered  
politics, technology, and Washington, D.C., for more than a decade,  
which has turned him into an iconoclast and a skeptic of anyone who  
says, "We oughta have a new federal law against this." E-mail Declan.