I’m shocked, SHOCKED, I say, to find that a computerized system can store and transmit data. Who could imagine such a thing? At least there is no possibility there could be a — what do the techie folks call it… — a backdoor way to do this while not in ‘testing’ mode. Right?
Contrary to public statements made by the Transportation Security Administration, full-body airport scanners do have the ability to store and transmit images, according to documents obtained by the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
[…]
The TSA has stated publicly on its website, in videos and in statements to the press that images cannot be stored on the machines and that images are deleted from the scanners once an airport operator has examined them. The administration has also insisted that the machines are incapable of sending images.But a TSA official acknowledged to CNN that the machines do have these capabilities when set to “test mode.”
The official said these functions are disabled before the machines are delivered to airports and that there is no way for screeners in airports to put the machines into test mode to enable the functions. The official, however, would not elaborate on what specific protections, if any, are in place to prevent airport personnel from putting the machines in test mode.
Say these images are on a screen, what is to prevent a pervy TSA employee from just grabbing a handycam or cell phone camera and snapping a picture of the screen. IIRC, way back in the day this is how we “printed” color computer images.
So I am ok with these machines as long as the image is never shown on a screen.
Well, gee. None of us predicted THAT, did we?
But if I haven’t done anything wrong I’ve got nothing to fear, right. Right?…
“Those who give up a little freedom for safety deserve neither.”
And no, I don’t give shit who said it or who is attributed to it, it’s more true today than yesterday.
Little mini-brown shirt brigade doing whatever they hell they want to at your expense.
$5 goes out to the first person who puts a plastic sign across their ass that spells “Hi, Mom!” and goes through one of these scanners! 🙂
#4 I agree with you 100%, but do you know what this means? It means we have to accept that every once in a while, a terrorist is going to blow up a building or a plane in America. I think we can reduce the number of such occurrences by limiting the number of wedding parties in rural Afghanistan we blow up with Predators.
I’m OK with the occasional terrorist attack as a price of freedom. But there are a lot of scared people out there. Are they OK with it?
Phydeau, what are you, some sort of weak-on-terrorism librul? Screw freedoms, we must be safe! 😉
You’re kidding yourself if you think future attacks aren’t coming even with all this nonsense.
Politicians have always excelled in playing these silly games for the purpose of “image”, not substance. If they were serious we wouldn’t need this TSA peep-show.
Guess that’s the problem with looking at life through so many shades of gray. You miss the clarity black and white has to offer.
#7 By all means, take away all my freedoms, just keep those big bad terrorists from getting me! (Whimper) 😉
#8 I agree, the TSA is in large part a ceremonial thing… there are so many baggage handlers and janitors and plumbers running around an airport, it would be easy for one of them to put a bomb on an airplane. And the costs would be incredible to lock down an airport with the kind of security you’d need. So travelers need to be able to pretend they’re being protected while getting their airline tickets at a reasonable cost. But people don’t like it when you point that out. 🙂
I for one love black and white, it’s much simpler than shades of gray. Don’t find it much in real life though. 🙁
Dang, gotta cut down on those smilies…
We all agree this is bad path. Thank goodness the ACLU is there for things like this.
My guess is the conservatives are particularly concerned about this as they are sexually uptight as it is even in their own homes 🙂
#9-Phydeau
Did you learn nothing from Yoda in Star Wars?
“Do or do not… there is no try.”
To find black and white in the real world you have to know what you are trying to accomplish.
People, if you can display images onscreen you essentially have the data to do whatever you want. It’s not hard to understand.
Yes, I’m willing to accept that there may be the occasional “man caused disaster” as the pussies in the Whitehouse like to say if we don’t implement every silly assed idea coming down the pike.
Anyone with half a brain could do a shitload of damage today which doesn’t say a whole lot about these idiot Muslims who haven’t yet figured that out.
There are even federal government websites offering free information that would help them plot something big.
#12 I can’t believe I’m being lectured about the real world by someone quoting a fictional character. Thanks Dodd, I’ll take that under advisement. 🙂 (Um, you do know that Jack Bauer is fiction too, right?)
And perhaps you’ve misunderstood… I’m not saying everything in the world is shades of gray. There’s just more than your typical conservative would like to admit. Maybe you haven’t read those studies that show liberals can handle shades of gray better than conservatives. Here’s just one.
Exploring the neurobiology of politics, scientists have found that liberals tolerate ambiguity and conflict better than conservatives because of how their brains work.
In a simple experiment reported today in the journal Nature Neuroscience, scientists at New York University and UCLA show that political orientation is related to differences in how the brain processes information.
Previous psychological studies have found that conservatives tend to be more structured and persistent in their judgments whereas liberals are more open to new experiences. The latest study found those traits are not confined to political situations but also influence everyday decisions…
Mac Guy said, “$5 goes out to the first person who puts a plastic sign across their ass that spells “Hi, Mom!”’
And $25 to the first Mom who correctly identifies that ass on YouTube!
#17 Those who believe in nothing will believe in anything.
Yep, there’s that black-and-white thinking. Thanks for illustrating. Your brain is not wired to understand this, but just because a person doesn’t cling to 100% black-and-white beliefs, doesn’t mean they have no beliefs.
That biological research on conservative/liberal brains sure does explain a lot about people with fundy religious and political beliefs. Makes a lot of sense.
… and setting up a large bogus bureaucracy like the TSA that only provides an illusion of security is not government that works.
I hope these security folks aren’t the same govt contractors that did the unencrypted military drone video.
i can imagine certain hollywood hot-body females ( and maybe some males) having their ‘photos’ grabbed and sold by unscrupulous TSA personnel to the tabloids.
You are not suggesting that the TSA is being untruthful – are you?
I find that very hard to believe after all, they did apprehend the ‘blow your balls off’ terrorist once he was on the ground.
My understanding following some reading of this mans passage (NO! Not THAT passage) was that passengers in transit – i.e via another foreign airport used as a waystop, are not subjected to much in the way of security checks. The assumption being that they were thoroughly checked at the original point of embarkation i.e. Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran etc. etc. Also. notice that there is no blowing up of planes in those countries. Perhaps they need a TSA of their own to stimulate moves in that direction.
#15 Thanks for the study Fido. I liked this part, “Lead author David Amodio, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University, cautioned that the study looked at a narrow range of human behavior and that it would be a mistake to conclude that one political orientation was better.”
Or do you feel that you are naturally superior?
#27 No one’s making value judgements here. I don’t feel that I’m naturally superior. I do think that life is easier if you aren’t upset as much by things that change. Life throws us curveballs all the time. If you’re less upset by change, you’re going to be a happier person, IMHO.
#28
In general I agree.
Well adjusted people want members of the opposite sex looking at their junk. All members. Put scanners everywhere.
# 20 Phydeau said, “Actually, it’s the wannabe fascists in the Republican party we have to worry about.”
Yes, and look how well the Dems have done in reversing all those nasty things. GOP or DNC – it don’t matter. They’re all cut from the same cloth.
Let us take this scenario.. the TSA guy/girl in the room watching these images find a guy/girl who has strapped bombs around his crotch, would he not be forced to save these images as proof that this man did indeed carry bombs on board and will it not be used in court? Then will they also not un-blur his face to make a positive identification between the man pictured and the man under arrest to prove that it is the same individual? Or are we supposed to believe that the image is deleted and the face is forever blurred? Would they not also do so to every other person that traveled through that airport that day to try to find other people that this person may have worked with?
And when a TSA officer identifies an individual with bombs, would he/she not send that image back to the terminal so that the TSA officers making the arrest know exactly where that bomb is placed so not to accidentally trigger it? The bomb could be around the chest, under the armpit, around the ankles etc.. making a wrong move with a guy who has bombs strapped around him could be even more fatal.
Then if by chance a guy manages to get through with explosives and is successful at going through with his scheme; do you not think the TSA would not look through the images of people scanned to see what was missed?
And then the question is, what stops this from being abused?
Um, was someone expecting something else?
#32 Yes, and look how well the Dems have done in reversing all those nasty things. GOP or DNC – it don’t matter. They’re all cut from the same cloth.
Not exactly the same cloth. I don’t think the D’s are tempted to do the same huge stupid things as the R’s. Does anyone really think a President Gore would have listened to the PNAC crazies and started a bogus war in Iraq?
But I do agree both parties are in bed with the big money boys, although the R’s are a more natural fit with them.
Really, wingnuts, what are you bitching and moaning about? Y’all worshiped Dubya for a long time, until it became obvious what a disaster he was. Now you pretend you never supported him. But if Obama’s doing the same things Dubya did, why aren’t you happy? You liked the spying without warrants, the torture, back when Dubya did it. You swooned that big strong Dubya was keeping America safe, why do liberals hate American so much? But now, why the sudden reversal now that Obama’s doing it?
Us liberals bashed Dubya for it, and now we’re bashing Obama for it. At least we’re consistent. The only consistency you have is Republican good, Democrat bad, even if they’re doing the exact same things.