No idea about pornography

The BBC reports on a new body scanner being used at Manchester Airport

A scanner which produces "naked" images of passengers has started a trial at Manchester Airport.

The authorities say it will speed up security checks by quickly revealing any concealed weapons or explosives.

But the full body scans will also show up breast enlargements, body piercings and a clear black-and-white outline of passengers' genitals.

Its a neat picture they've included with it, the way the flesh bulges over the belt. I haven't given much thought to how clothing distorts the body, except in the case of corsets and the like.

Sarah Barrett, head of customer experience at the airport, said most passengers did not like the traditional "pat down" search.

...

Ms Barrett said the black-and-white image would only be seen by one officer in a remote location before it was deleted."The images are not erotic or pornographic and they cannot be stored or captured in any way," she said.

Now this last sentence is clearly untrue, as the picture that accompanies the story has been captured and stored, and now reposted. Unless of course that's just a stock image, mybad.

I want to know more about this one officer who gets to look at nuddy pics all day. You're going to need more than one officer, possibly three, working in shifts, maybe six to give a week's coverage, and their manager who gets called over if the officer sees anything interesting.

Actually, there must be a way to capture and store an image in the system. What if the chap does see somene is carrying a gun or bomb? There needs to be some kind of proof, some record, even if its just a Prt Scrn button. I guess the officer could take a camera phone snapshot of his screen, and just send it to all the necessary personnel.

Also of concern is Sarah Barrett asserting that the images are not erotic or pornographic. Clearly she is unaware of Rule 34,

Rule 34 - If it exists, there is porn of it.

We're just hours away from something appearing on ffffound

Schneier was talking about this sort of thing years ago.