Full-Body Scanners Might Be Illegal, UK Is Warned

(Feb. 16) – A British commission set up to ensure equal rights and crack down on prejudice has warned the U.K. government that full-body scanners set up at two major airports might be illegal and breach privacy rights.

The head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission said in a letter to the government made public today that there was an apparent lack of safeguards to ensure the scanners were being operated in a lawful way and without discrimination.

The commission also said it had "serious doubts" that the decision to introduce the full-body scanners at all British airports complied with the law. At present the scanners have been in limited use at London's Heathrow Airport and at Manchester, in the north. The commission urged immediate action to make use of the scanners comply with legal protections.

While the commission said it understood why, on national security grounds, the criteria for selecting certain passengers had not been made public, "we consider it very likely that some criteria, for example, religious dress, destination, nationality or national origin, would also have an unlawful directly or indirectly discriminatory effect."

Use of the scanners, which were introduced after the attempted Christmas Day airliner bombing over Detroit, reveal full details of a person's naked body. While the results might ultimately be destroyed, the fact that they are seen by security guards might breach privacy rights, lawyers advising the commission said.

The British home secretary has indicated that people will be chosen on a random basis for full-body scanning. But the lack of transparency on how people will be chosen means it would be impossible for passengers to challenge why they've been selected, the commission says.

The commission's chairman, Trevor Phillips, said in a letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Adonis, "National security policies are intended to protect our lives and our freedoms, but it would be the ultimate defeat if that protection destroyed our other liberties."

The commission, set up in 2007, has the right to take the government to court. But a press spokeswoman told AOL News that the government had agreed to work with the commission to make sure use of the scanners was fully legal.

At present the scanners are being used under the terms of an interim code of practice, but the transport department has said it intends to review their use before a final version is produced this year.

Under the interim code, those who refuse a full-body scan are banned from flying.

Full-body scanners are installed at a number of airports in the U.S., but those who refuse to use them have the right to a physical pat-down in addition to passing through a metal detector.