Chris Morran writes about a bill previously mentioned on this blog:
Back in December, we wrote about the law being proposed by Senator Chuck Schumer that would make it a crime to distribute or save images taken as part of an airport security scan. That law has come one step closer to becoming a reality after being unanimously accepted as an amendment to the FAA Reauthorization Bill being considered by the Senate.
The legislation, known as Security Screening Confidential Data Privacy Act, ensures that anyone — airport staff or member of the public — with access to scanned body images would be prohibited from photographing or disseminating those images. Violators could face up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000 per violation.
Read more on The Consumerist.
Of course, that bill doesn’t prevent problems. It only punishes violators after the fact and hopes that such consequences will serve as a deterrent. What we really need to know is that images cannot be stored and that employees aren’t using their own cellphones to take pictures of the “nudatron” images they seen on screens.
And of course, there is always that pesky issue of why the hell we’re being treated as criminals in the absence of any reasonable suspicion.
So no, I’m not too excited about this bill as it’s not proactive at all.