Naked Security Scans Illustrate Ineffectiveness of TSA's Advanced Screening Techniques

 

Gizmodo's (not so) shocking revelation earlier this week that federal employees saved tens of thousands of images of naked citizens created by advanced imaging technology scanners has further ignited public outrage over TSA and its scanning techniques.

The backstory: Earlier this year, U.S. Marshals working in a Florida federal courthouse saved 35,000 images created by a millimeter-wave scanner. Was it an accident? Is it illegal? Those questions are still being debated. All we know is that the incident flies in the face of everything TSA has always told Americans about AIT: that operators can't store, print, save or transmit the images. 

A few clarifications on the Gizmodo story: Interestingly, these photos are not actually “stored scans” as the article seems to suggests. Instead, they're “detected events”: moments when the operator was alerted that something out of the ordinary was under the citizen's clothes.

As you'll see, these particular scanners produce images that are so fuzzy, inconclusive and error-prone that it defies explanation as to why they were implemented. This technology might work if a citizen is hiding a gun under his or her coat. But how often does that happen, considering what the traveling public knows about airport security? And, in this case, the gun would have been detected just fine by a normal metal detector.

What's even more troubling is the shear number of detected events. Imagine having to sort through and inspect 35,000 static-filled images. The potential for human error is huge. What is the practical benefit of having such low alert thresholds?

Finally, the alerts are obviously wrong in many cases. In fact, one photo shows the system alerting on the empty space between two citizens.

TSA argues that passengers should put up with AIT scans and advanced pat-downs for the sake of our own security. But when the technology performs the way these scanners do, what value do we gain from relinquishing our privacy?