EPICs lawsuit argues that the body scanners violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches, as well as the Privacy Act, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, referencing religious laws about modesty.
The group points to a further document (PDF) it has obtained from DHS showing that the machines used by the departments TSA are not only able to record and store naked body images, but that they are mandated to do so.
The TSA has admitted that this is the case, but claims that it is for training and testing purposes only, maintaining that the body scanners used at airports cannot store, print or transmit images.
This was confirmed in a letter sent to Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security, at approximately the same time the government initially claimed the machines are safe and cannot save images. In fact, this ability is a government requirement.
TSA requires AIT machines to have the capability to retain and export imagines (sic) only for testing, training, and evaluation purposes, states a Homeland Security letter dated February 24, 2010 and signed by Gale D. Rossides, Acting Administrator.
The machines indeed store and transmit images. According to Rossides, however, this ability is limited to engineers, training contractors, and Z level users. Z level users are described as select lab personnel from the TSAs Office of Security Technology.
The images are apparently also sent to the TSAs Threat Mitigation Lab.
via TSA Lies Again Over Capture, Storage Of Body Scanner Images.