The statist argument is always the same: "If you have nothing to hide, why do you care?" The government can attach a GPS device to your car and monitor your movements, and it's perfectly legal. And now they can x-ray inside your car or home. Is this really the society in which you want to live, a society that support the notion of guilty until proven innocent? At least in the airport, there is some aspect of consent (though minimal). Even the liberal ACLU asserts this is a complete violation of the Constitution. Little by little, the government is eroding your civil liberties, especially your privacy. Will there be a time when a majority of people will no longer accept an erosion of their fundamental human rights, or do they really not care?
FTA:
As the privacy controversy around full-body security scans begins to simmer, it's worth noting that courthouses and airport security checkpoints aren't the only places where backscatter x-ray vision is being deployed. The same technology, capable of seeing through clothes and walls, has also been rolling out on U.S. streets.
American Science & Engineering, a company based in Billerica, Massachusetts, has sold U.S. and foreign government agencies more than 500 backscatter x-ray scanners mounted in vans that can be driven past neighboring vehicles to see their contents...
The Z Backscatter Vans, or ZBVs, as the company calls them, bounce a narrow stream of x-rays off and through nearby objects, and read which ones come back. Absorbed rays indicate dense material such as steel. Scattered rays indicate less-dense objects that can include explosives, drugs, or human bodies. That capability makes them powerful tools for security, law enforcement, and border control...
"It's no surprise that governments and vendors are very enthusiastic about [the vans]," says Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC. "But from a privacy perspective, it's one of the most intrusive technologies conceivable."
...But EPIC's Rotenberg says that the scans, like those in the airport, potentially violate the fourth amendment. "Without a warrant, the government doesn't have a right to peer beneath your clothes without probable cause," he says.
Full-Body Scan Technology Deployed In Street-Roving Vans
DISCUSS!
Original posting by Braincrave Second Life staff on Sep 3, 2010 at http://www.braincrave.com/viewblog.php?id=313
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