Hold it — I distinctly remember being told that under TSA rules this could not happen.

It
did?

Well, at least we can be thankful that the scanners aren't actually capable of storing or sending the images they take of your virtually naked body, because what a nightmare that would be.

They can?

Okay, this is disturbing, but at least it is making us safer.

It isn't?

Last year, CNN quoted Bruce Schneier, a well-known security expert, as saying that whole-body imaging technology "works pretty well," it just "doesn't make us safer."  He pointed out that even if airport security was 100% effective, then terrorists would just target other locations, like the hotel they targeted in Mumbai.  "We'd be much better off," Schneier said, "going after bad guys [in the field] and back to pre-9/11 levels of airport security. . . . It's stupid to spend money [when] terrorists can change plans."

In the year since he said that, the TSA has bought at least 150 of the machines that show you naked but don't make us safer, for about $170,000 each.  It is planning to buy another 300 next year.

Link: The Guardian
Link: Boing Boing