German privacy watchdog warns body scanners are too revealing

Jan 5, 2010, 11:42 GMT

Berlin - The head of Germany's privacy watchdog warned on Tuesday against the hasty introduction of body scanners at airports, after the government said it was awaiting laboratory tests before deciding whether to test the devices.

The debate over body scanners, which take a 'naked' image of passengers, restarted after the attempted bombing on Christmas Day of a US passenger plane over Detroit.

'I have not yet seen a single device that protects personal rights,' German data commissioner Peter Schaar told the daily Frankfurter Rundschau.

The scanners can be calibrated to produce a pixellated image or a diagram of the person passing through, on which suspicious objects are highlighted.

Schaar said this was not enough, as the devices also revealed whether passengers were using prosthetics or implants.

'The mere development that the monitors no longer show naked images is not enough,' the privacy watchdog said.

The use of body scanners has not been authorized in Europe, except in cases where countries have applied to the EU Commission to run tests, as is the case at Schiphol airport in the Netherlands.

Germany has made no such request, an interior ministry spokesman said at the start of the week. The government was awaiting the outcome of lab tests before deciding whether to install the devices at airports, he added.

Airport representatives warned against introducing body scanners before the technology was fully developed.

Sooner or later, the scanners would be introduced at German airports, said Ralph Beisel of the German consortium of passenger airports ADV. But he said they were still in development and did not yet protect privacy and improve security enough.

Meanwhile, police spokesmen warned that body scanners only addressed one aspect of lax airport security standards.

The head of the police trade union, Konrad Freiberg, blamed airport operators for neglecting security in order to cut costs, during an interview on ARD state television.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition partners have not opposed the introduction of body scanners - as long as they can be developed to a standard that improves airport security whilst protecting personal rights.

'I take the arguments against body scanners very seriously,' said Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer.

For this reason it was important to rigorously test the scanners in airports, not just in laboratories, said Wolfgang Bosbach, the head of the parliamentary committee on internal affairs.

Airport tests could begin later this year, Bosbach added.