Body Scanners Spur Opposition

The Transportation Administration is continuing its rollout of the much-embattled full body scanners, which privacy groups have called invasive and not as anonymous as TSA claims.

David Perera over at FierceGovernmentIT points out that the Electronic Privacy Information Center, along with the American Civil Liberties Union, Government Accountability Project and others, recently filed a petition asking the Homeland Security Department to suspend deployment of the controversial scanners. Many of the concerns listed are the same things the group has been lobbying against from the beginning: The scans are "digital strip searches," the machines allow TSA officers to associate specific identifying information with particular passengers, the public isn't given another reasonable option for security if they object to the procedure.

But the interesting thing, as Perera points out, is that the petition questions whether the scanners are effective enough to be worth a $2.4 billion price tag. For example, the machines can't detect powdered explosives, a major flaw given the tactics employed by the Christmas Day bomber. The petition also expresses concern that the scanners are not the least restrictive method of improving security and that they violate numerous privacy laws.

So, what's the right price to pay for improved security? Is this the technology we've been waiting for?