mr president i would like to focus the house's attention on the recent announcement by the commission to apply whole-body imaging technology to europe's airports by twenty ten
here i would like the commission to clarify and justify many points which have been raised in the committee on civil liberties justice and home affairs
the most important is why this step is seen merely as a technical change to the existing aviation security regulation and thus why parliamentary scrutiny of fundamental issues of personal privacy and dignity are being bypassed
this technology has the potential and i stress the potential to force air passengers to undergo what could be seen as undignifying treatment and this is certainly not a small technical step
if we are to justify this to our citizens we first need to know why it is needed at all
are we heading down the route of using more technology just for the sake that that technology is available and also what extent will the technology be used for
i can understand that in some cases this should be a secondary measure where an individual chooses not to be as we say frisked by a security official
but as a primary screening measure it is a very serious breach of our basic rights to privacy and intrusive
we have already seen with the liquids rules that the precedent is being set for extra security measures to become the norm in airports
however inconvenient these liquids rules are to passengers it is certainly not an invasion of privacy
other major concerns i have are with the storage of data
as i understand storing of images is not the initial intention but this is not to say that it is not possible to do so
therefore could the commission outline what events could lead to the storing of this data how it would be protected and whether and how it could be ruled today that this possibility would not be used so that it could be ruled out completely thereby greatly alleviating many of the concerns of law-abiding passengers
i would also like to see that proper consultation is carried out with user groups
tests have indeed been carried out on these machines at some airports including in my own country at london heathrow but as yet i understand the results of this process have not been scrutinised by experts or the relevant parliamentary committees
finally i would urge the commission not to head down the route of forcing individuals to submit to a potentially degrading process without first understanding the rightful concerns of innocent travellers
of course we should be serious about security but this form of blanket approach to technology has the potential to turn a legitimate security concern into an unacceptable peepshow for security industries
