Privacy Groups to Protest Creepy Airport Security Measures

The TSA, everyone's favorite shining beacon of national security, announced recently that they plan to employ "full body imaging" for airports in the future. It's a notion that seems, well, horrible.

No one in their right mind wants to see America naked one person at a time, even for the sake of safety. Oh, right. And it's a total and utter violation of privacy. At least that's what various "privacy protest groups" are claiming.

"People need to know what's happening, with no sugar-coating and no spinning,"
said [Lillie] Coney [associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center].

Which is why the EPIC is banding together as many people and organizations as possible in order to keep the TSA and the government from moving forward with the permanent placement of these full-body imaging machines in airports.

Chris Calabrase, an ALCU attorney, echoed similar feelings and also brought up one of the most important points: misuse of these images.

"A choice between being groped and being stripped, I don't think we should pretend those are the only choices," he said. "People shouldn't be humiliated by their government" in the name of security, nor should they trust that the images will always be kept private.

"Screeners at LAX [Los Angeles International Airport]," he speculated, "could make a fortune off naked virtual images of celebrities."

Now, certainly all of the TSA employees are upstanding citizens sworn to protect America's safety one hassled traveler at a time, but Calabrase is being realistic here -- everyone has their price, and if that price happens to be $15,000 for a slew of shots of Justin Timberlake "naked" (as naked as he can be in an x-ray machine) from TMZ, well, let's just say that said TSA employee would probably fall closer to the median American person than the one with high standards.

But that's not to totally bemoan the TSA's attempts to keep us safe; it's just that when you're dealing with privacy -- just as with, conveniently, naked pictures of yourself on the Internet -- once that line is crossed, it's hard to turn back and go the other way. So in that frame of mind, I fully applaud the kind people of these protestacularly caring institutions.