Body scanners and the right to privacy

Mindful of the controversy in the West on the use of full body scanners at airports, the Indian government is moving with caution as it proposes to introduce the scans from July this year, first at Delhi airport and then in Mumbai.

The Union aviation minister Praful Patel said, in an announcement in the Rajya Sabha on March 10, that the scanners would be introduced on a trial basis. The government was yet to finalise the type of technology that will be used, he said, adding that ‘appropriate safeguards and certification for privacy and health issues will be incorporated.’

The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), in charge of the security in 57 airports across the country, is keen on introducing the machines but admits that there are ethical issues involved. The CISF Additional Director General MS Bali told IANS, "People object that their private body parts are revealed. But if these are covered, people can hide explosives in their clothes." 

Already, the proposal has triggered objections and the Darul uloom at Deoband has stated that it would be against the Shariat. The Vice-chancellor of the seminary, Maulana Abdul Khalik Madrasi supported a fatwa issued by the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) against the scanners. Two women passengers bound for Pakistan from Heathrow airport decided to forgo travelling rather than subject themselves to a body scan in March. Airport officials insisted they were selected at random. However, one of the women refused on medical grounds while the other cited religious reasons for refusing to undergo the scans.

Closer home, Hindi film actor Shah Rukh Khan said in a celebrity chat show on television in the UK that he was subjected to a body scan at London’s Heathrow airport and that he even autographed a copy of his body scan for security operators. This was denied by a spokesperson for British Airport Authorities, who said that there was no way the scans they took were stored or reproduced.

Body scanners are already being used in some international airports, including London’s Heathrow airport, Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and in 19 airports in the USA. The machines primarily use two kinds of technology _ backscatter X-ray technology and millimetre wave technology. Security agencies argue that these are less invasive than ‘pat-down’ body searches currently in operation. However, with the detailed imaging of the nude body of the airline traveller, the use of such machines amount to ‘virtual strip searches’.

Civil liberties groups worried about misuse

Their use or possible misuse for women or children, people from minority communities, ethnic groups etc, has alarmed civil liberties groups in the West. The Electronic Privacy Information Centre (EPIC), a Washington-based watchdog on privacy issues has spearheaded a coalition of organisations to seek safeguards and the regulation of a code for the use of such machines.

In one such effort, the machines are used and operated by only two security officers ??" one who comes in contact with the passenger and operates the machine but does not see the passenger’s image and the other who does not come in contact with the passenger but sees the image. Moreover, the image is meant to be destroyed almost immediately ??" therefore the machine’s storage capacity is also regulated.

In a scathing indictment against the increasing use of instruments such as body scanners, Martin Scheinin, the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism, said:

These measures have not only led to violations of the right to privacy, but also have an impact on due process rights and the freedom of movement ??" especially at borders ??" and can have a chilling effect on the freedom of association and the freedom of expression.

In his report to the UN, he said:

In the name of countering terrorism, States have expanded initiatives to identify, scan and tag the general public through the use of multiple techniques which might violate an individual person’s right to privacy. When surveillance occurs of places and larger groups of people, the surveillance is typically subject to weaker regimes for authorization and oversight.

Human rights standards have been tested, stretched and breached through the use of stop-and-searches; the compilation of lists and databases; the increased surveillance of financial, communications and travel data; the use of profiling to identify potential suspects; and the accumulation of ever larger databases to calculate the probability of suspicious activities and identify individuals seen as worthy of further scrutiny.

More advanced techniques are applied as well, such as the collection of biometrics or the use of body scanners that can see through clothing. Some intrusions into people’s lives can be permanent as people’s physical and biographical details are frequently centralized in databases.

He later told journalists that, in the fight against terrorism, scanners were both an ineffective means of prevention and an excessive intrusion into individual privacy. "The use of a full-body scanner which reveals graphic details of the human body, including the most private parts of it, very easily is a violation of human rights. It would be a violation of human rights in respect to everyone, but there are particular sensitivities in respect of women, certain religions, certain cultural backgrounds, " he said.

At the crux lies the issue of balancing legitimate public concerns for security and safety and the sweeping powers available with law-enforcing authorities to intrude into private spaces. While the contours of the private are increasingly unclear, the necessary checks and balances to authority can and must be laid down. More information is the need of the hour and then, more discussion. Only then can clearer choices be made on this contentious issue.