The Office of Transport Security announced in October 2008 that it was commencing
airport trials of a scanning technology that presents a display of the human
body much as if the person were naked.
It does not appear that there had been any prior public consultation process,
nor any consultation with representative and advocacy groups.
On the basis of the media reports about the Office's announcement, the APF
makes the following observations:
- Any scheme that has significant potential to intrude into privacy, in any
of its forms, needs to be the subject of a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA).
A preliminary PIA is necessary even before trials of such a nature are undertaken.
- The Office claims that privacy is protected because "the officer examining
the images is located away from the screening lane and cannot see [the person
concerned]". This suggests a serious lack of appreciation of the nature
of privacy. Many people regard the appearance of their naked bodies as being
private, and are concerned about a breach of this expectation whether or not
the person looking at the image knows who they are.
- Any privacy-intrusive measure requires justification, and exposure of the
justification to review. It is far from clear what the problem is that this
technology is meant to address, and far from clear that it is any more effective
or efficient in addressing that problem than are other, less privacy-intrusive
alternatives.
- The trials should be halted, and a PIA conducted.
- This technology exposes the serious limitations on current privacy laws.
They are limited to protection of 'personal information' and do not apply
to the intrusion involved in depersonalised body-scanning.
Stop Press: Europe
shelves airport full body scans (The Age, 21 November 2008)
Resources
The tiny amount of public information available on the project appears to be
as follows:
Media Reports include: