Test Mode Allows Images To Be Saved, Transmitted

Since their introduction, privacy advocates have publicly worried that images from full-body scans at the airport might wind up on the internet. TSA assured us on its website that "The machines have zero storage capability."
 
At some airports where the technology is in use, TSA plays a video in the screening area which asserts, "...the system has no way to save, transmit or print the image."
 
But CNN reports that EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, found that the machines have a test mode in which the images can not only be stored, but transmitted. EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg says that opens the possibilities of abuse by insiders, or even hackers. The  "Level Z" authority for TSA allows the security agency to disable privacy filters and to export raw image files.
 
EPIC obtained the information on the machines through a Freedom of Information Act request. Rotenberg is critical of what he calls "slick promotion" by the TSA. "[I]f you look at the actual technical specifications and you read the vendor contracts, you come to understand that these machines are capable of doing far more than the TSA has let on."
 
TSA has responded by saying adequate safeguards are in place. The officer viewing the images cannot see the passenger being scanned, the machines are not networked and cannot be hacked, no cellphones or other photographic devices are allowed in the viewing rooms, and violators are subject to serious discipline or removal.
 
All of which may be true, but then YouTube is filled with bootleg concert videos from venues where no cameras are allowed, and TSA reportedly has declined to cooperate in the prosecution of its workers when they're caught stealing at airports, citing security concerns.

FMI: http://epic.org, www.tsa.gov