Do Body Scanners Breach Right To Privacy?

Posted on Feb 01 in Travelling and Snowboardingby NickyPrint

Privacy campaigners in the United Kingdom are claiming that the images created by new full body scanners, currently under trial at Manchester airport, are so graphic that they are really a form of virtual strip search.

Strict UK child protection legislation bans the creation of indecent images of children and this is relsulting in under 18s being exempt from body scans. Civil liberties groups have called for stringent safeguards that will ensure that images derived from the new system will not be published on the internet or distributed.

At the beginning of January 2010 a trial of the new body scanning technology was commenced at Manchester airport.The body scanner triall only started after under 18s were exempted from the security check.

Concerns have been raised in the United States where similar systems are in use and images are required to be immediately deleted. Concerns have been raised that security staff would not be able to resist sharing scanned images of celebrities or those with unusual physical profiles.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said that new scanning devices risked breaching an individual’s right to privacy under the Human rights act. In response to these fears the UK Department of Transport has said that they were developing a staff code of practice for those using the new body scanning technology.

There is currently a rush to introduce the new security technology at British airports due to the apparent attempt to blow up an American aircraft on December 25th by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. It has been estimated that there is only a 50 to 60% chance that the new body scanner technology would have detected the explosive materials allegedly carried by this man.

The proposed introduction of new body scanning technology has raised concerns regarding privacy and civil liberties.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

When flying from a Scottish airport be certain to save on Glasgow airport parking, Edinburgh airport parking and Aberdeen airport parking by booking in advance.

blog comments powered by Disqus