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Germany rejects 'naked' airport security scanner

DDP/The Local
DDP/The Local - [email protected]
Germany rejects 'naked' airport security scanner
Photo: DPA

The German government on Friday rejected the European Commission’s plan to allow so-called backscatter x-ray security scanners at airports.

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A speaker from the Interior Ministry said "we will not go along with this nonsense," on Friday in Berlin.

The idea has been almost universally panned by parliamentary security experts from the Social Democrats, Greens, socialist Left party, and liberal Free Democrats (FDP) all expressed reservations that the scans – which create a ghostly naked image of a person – were an unacceptable invasion of privacy.

“This method cannot be implemented in Germany, as it violates all limits of embarrassment,” said Max Stadler from the FDP.

The European Commission recently said it would allow the new technology to improve security at EU airports.

But Germany’s federal police said passengers need not fear being “exposed” at the nation’s airports. Along with strict technical regulations the backscatter scanners would only be used under approved legal situations that “particularly respect the privacy of passengers.”

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