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EU must not green-light body scanners without privacy rules
January 21, 2010 4:32 PM
Commenting on the joint statement of EU home affairs ministers with US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano after a meeting billed as focussing on airport bodyscanners, European justice & human rights spokeswoman and London MEP Sarah Ludford said:
"I welcome the avoidance of any EU commitment on the installation of bodyscanners which by generating near-nude images of passengers raise serious personal privacy issues. The acknowledged need for transatlantic cooperation on aviation security, as on counter-terrorism in general, does not mean we should simply bow to American pressure. All 27 states should wait until an EU-wide approach is agreed, allowing a sensible discussion with the Americans."
"Pledges that the pictures will be destroyed have been exposed in the US as untrue, and illegal images of children and images of celebrities are bound to be leaked and found online in no time."
"So it is a pity the UK Labour government insists on going ahead without EU guidelines and without guaranteeing immediate deletion of images. I have asked the Commission for an assurance that European rules will indeed specify destruction of nude images after screening, with no storage or transfer."
"We also urgently need to take a raincheck on the proliferation of mass surveillance measures, as new European Commissioner for security Cecilia Malmstrom has promised me she will do. The pressing need is to address the failure to 'connect the dots' of information already available and to get shambolic watchlists into shape."
ENDS
Notes to Editors
The European Commission is due in the next few month to publish a report on the effectiveness of body scanners in preventing terrorism, alongside another on the privacy issues involved. MEPs will discuss the matter next Wednesday in the European Parliament's justice & civil liberties committee.
Besides her senior role on that committee, Sarah Ludford is also vice chair of the European Parliament delegation to the United States and closely involved in transatlantic security, legal and human rights issues She was vice-chair of the EP enquiry that reported in 2007 on European collusion with extraordinary rendition and torture.
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