Virtual strip search

"This is your Captain speaking. Please be ready to show us your genitals"

"This is your Captain speaking. Please be ready to show us your genitals"

Virtual strip-search has landed upon us.

Literally. The only difference is for now this request is being voiced not by the captain but by security check at Australian airports. It's not mandatory yet, but if it becomes, the captain of your plane will have the right to refuse you on the plane if you refuse the virtual strip search. In not-so-distant future.

Airports in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide are introducing trials of virtual strip-search in mid October 2008.

This "safety measure" is being trialled in parralel with traditional security checks.

Virtual strip search has drawn criticism from a number of privacy advocate groups including NSW Council for Civil Liberties. The resulting image reveals high detail of a person's body including his or her private parts. This is highly embarrasing for most people.

Government's Office of Transport Security has added a few "smoke screen" features aimed at making us accept the procedure more easily. The screening person is supposed to be sitting in another room, the face of the lucky traveller will be obscured and no images will be saved. This last claim is particulary hard to believe in the age of all data being reliously saved and merged into gigantic omni-databases, big-brother style.

Related stories:
Reuters: Germany says full-body airport scanner "nonsense"

CNN: Commentary: Whole-body imaging invades privacy

cnet news: House curbs 'virtual strip searches' at airports

NEWS.com.au: Passengers fear airport "virtual strip search"

NEWS.com.au: Move to limit use of 'invasive' full-body scanners in the USA