Brave new world

[Andreas]

So, when are people going to stand up against shit like this?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=866YvCdtmUk

[Scarbonac]

Puts me in mind of the van I used to see outside Langley as the bus to work dropped off dropped of CIA employees.

Hmmmm...

[Hatter]

I'm curious on how such devices interact with the 4th amendment. Is the ability to see into a vehicle using mobile backscatter devices legally equivalent to a search? Or are they similar to drug and bomb sniffing dogs who use enhanced senses to locate contraband? Can our freedoms adapt to advances in technology?

[Scarbonac]

I would like to own an example of this technology in handy spectacles form, which could be tuned to penetrate different substances, like, um, I dunno, skin, bone, steel, plastic, cloth and leather...

[Varaj]

I'm curious on how such devices interact with the 4th amendment. Is the ability to see into a vehicle using mobile backscatter devices legally equivalent to a search? Or are they similar to drug and bomb sniffing dogs who use enhanced senses to locate contraband? Can our freedoms adapt to advances in technology?

I imagine the courts would rule it similar to thermal imagining. People have an reasonable expectation of privacy to such things only because they are not common. As they become more common people will expect that they have no privacy without special effort from people viewing them at any given time.

Katz v. United States is the case that has laid out the criteria for what a search is. A "search occurs only when 1) a person expects privacy in the thing searched and 2) society believes that expectation is reasonable."

So in short once we expect such things to happen they can happen legally. :)

[Pigs in Space]

So... it's going around firing x-rays at stuff?

What the fuck? Get away from my gonads!

[Hatter]

I imagine the courts would rule it similar to thermal imagining. People have an reasonable expectation of privacy to such things only because they are not common. As they become more common people will expect that they have no privacy without special effort from people viewing them at any given time.

Katz v. United States is the case that has laid out the criteria for what a search is. A "search occurs only when 1) a person expects privacy in the thing searched and 2) society believes that expectation is reasonable."

So in short once we expect such things to happen they can happen legally. :)

Since we currently have a reasonable expectation of privacy for our vehicles and homes I feel less threatened by this technology.

I can see it used at airports or on the borders though; any place where you are already subject to search.

[Harry]

I see the potential for abuse. I also see information overload. There are things in my trunk that would register as suspicious, but are 100% normal things, just not stuff most people have in trunks.

[Scarbonac]

I see the potential for abuse. I also see information overload. There are things in my trunk that would register as suspicious, but are 100% normal things, just not stuff most people have in trunks.

Doesn't everyone have a dead hooker, 50 lb. of diet pills and a studded leather gimp suit in their trunk...?

[Harry]

Doesn't everyone have a dead hooker, 50 lb. of diet pills and a studded leather gimp suit in their trunk...?

Yep, and multiply that by the number of cars you can see on one city block.

[Hatter]

How do you envision it being abused? Previous court rulings in the US would rule out random searches outside of specific circumstances.

[shiningbrow]

And "it costs much less than other similar screening systems." How many of these are on the market, anyway? This sales video makes me wonder who the target audience is... government officials? CIA, FBI operatives? Where do we write for details? Price lists? Options?

http://www.as-e.com/zbv/


They are in Billerica, MA, just outside Boston, and they are hiring, if you have an engineering degree.

[Varaj]

The EPIC has a Freedom of Information suite outstanding to get a more clear understanding of just those sort of questions.

[Aloysius]

And "it costs much less than other similar screening systems." How many of these are on the market, anyway? This sales video makes me wonder who the target audience is... government officials? CIA, FBI operatives?

What else ? Mafia ? Corporations ? I can't see the use for those peoples, but I'm sure they can imagine one.

Of course, this kind of gadget may also find its way in China, Syria, Iran, North-Korea, Saudia Arabia and so on...

[Ergeheilalt]

Doesn't everyone have a dead hooker, 50 lb. of diet pills and a studded leather gimp suit in their trunk...?

Sounds like Anc's roadside emergency preparedness kit.