While the US Transport Security Administration claims that images from electronic body scans “cannot be stored or recorded,” a CNET News report has revealed that some federal agencies are saving tens of thousands of images.

Body scanners are increasingly found in airports and courthouses and use an assortment of technologies. According to CNET, the US government favours body scanners because they can detect concealed weapons better than traditional magnetometers. The report also said the US Marshals Service admitted to saving thousands of images recorded from a security checkpoint in a Florida courthouse.

Critics have likened body scanners to a virtual strip search, because they penetrate clothing and provide a highly detailed image of the subject’s anatomy.

This debate over privacy has been bubbling since the days of the Bush administration, but it came to the boil three weeks ago when Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano announced that practically every major airport in the US would be equipped with body scanners. The updated list includes New York City, Dallas, Miami, San Francisco, Seattle, Philadelphia and Washington.

The Electronic Privacy Information Center, an advocacy group based in Washington DC, has filed a lawsuit to a federal judge to grant an immediate injunction to pull the plug on this installation of body scanners. EPIC describes the program as “unlawful, invasive, and ineffective.”

William Bordley, an associate general counsel with the Marshals Service (part of the Justice Department) admitted in a letter to EPIC last week that "approximately 35,314 images... have been stored on the Brijot Gen2 machine" used in the Orlando, Fla. Federal courthouse.

The TSA maintains that body scanning is legal: "The program is designed to respect individual sensibilities regarding privacy, modesty and personal autonomy to the maximum extent possible, while still performing its crucial function of protecting all members of the public from potentially catastrophic events." ~ CNET News, Aug 4