Virtual Airport Body Searches Topic On Paltalk

New body scanning technology slowly being introduced into airports in the United States and elsewhere in the world is causing some to raise concerns of privacy. And once again the issue of how to balance security and civil liberties is being raised.

Publications such as Germany’s Der Spiegel have published photographs depicting what security officers see as people pass through the scanners. Virtually everyone I’ve shown those pictures to say the scanners, which clearly show genitalia and even details of a person’s buttocks is way too intrusive.

In the United States, the technology, which basically is tantamount to virtual body searches, is being employed at airports in New York, Los Angeles, Washington, Miami and elsewhere.

Reporter Sean O’Neill, who has reported about the full-body scanners for Newsweek’s Budget Travel site will be my guest on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com tomorrow, November 7.

O’Neill’s article questions if the TSA is violating the privacy rights of those who go through the scanners.

O’Neill reports that Germany has banned the scanners because of privacy concerns. But the TSA argues that they aren’t invasive at all. Here in the United States, the American Civil Liberties Union opposes their use.

On its Evolution of Security website, the TSA says the millimeter wave devices produce a, “three-dimensional image of the body, with facial features blurred for privacy” which is displayed on a remote monitor for analysis.

“The image,” the TSA says, “is not saved – once it’s off the screen it’s gone forever.”

To talk to O’Neill about the virtual strip searches at 5 PM New York time tomorrow, Friday November 7 CLICK HERE. There is no charge.

Paltalk is the largest multimedia interactive program on the Internet with more than 4 million unique users.

News Talk Online is also syndicated by CRN Digital Talk Radio to an additional 12 million households.

Can We Protect Our Borders And Our Rights At The Same Time?

Sometimes I feel like I’m speaking a different language than some of my fellow Americans.

Today was one such day.

The discussion on News Talk Online on Paltalk.com was about a government policy, kept hidden until it was revealed through a Freedom Of Information Act request, authorizing Customs agents to peruse the personal and business documents of any person entering the United States. And to make copies as well. In the name, of course, of national security.

Even my own online producer and show screener, Boaz Frankel, didn’t seem to get it when I suggested this is an invasive policy. One that takes away rights under the guise of protecting us from those who would, if they could, well, take away our rights.

The fear mongering over terrorism is becoming a bit frightening in and of itself.

Not that we shouldn’t be vigilant. Of course we should. Not that the threat isn’t real. Of course it is. But let’s just not willingly and voluntarily give up our rights in the name of protecting them.

One caller, Malik from Indianapolis, an attorney, points out that all persons in the United States are afforded Constitutional rights. That includes foreign nationals suspected of being terrorists.