Also, former Gestapo chief Michael Chertoff is a paid consultant for Rapiscan, the manufacturer of most of the RPSes.

The sequence of three videos is here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/tsanonflyer
The outrageous part is in the 3rd segment.

-cool hand Luke-

“Weel, I don’t know where you been, me lad, but I see you won first prize!”

In a rational world, [this wouldn't be considered wiretapping]. However, police in a number of states have tried to prosecute citizens who used cameras to record public police actions under state wiretapping laws as unlawful interception or recording of communications without consent of all parties. There have been a number of successful prosecutions.

Agreed, recording with a handheld, visible device is very different from wiretapping (the latter having much greater potential to be surreptitious), so I think calling the former “wiretapping” and treating it the same way is idiotic.

Each state has different laws pertaining to what constitutes legal and illegal recording. The example you point out in Massachusetts is governed by the laws there which state that the consent of both parties is required. Other states — e.g. Texas — require only the consent and knowledge of one party. The different laws can be browsed by state here:
http://www.rcfp.org/taping/states.html

Plenty of pre/post op trans people aren’t laughing about this, either.

There are a number of differences here.

1) He wasn’t referring to security cameras, he was referring to people he doesn’t know singling his child out, which *is* potentially creepy lacking context.

2) In this case the camera is snapping shots of his child without clothes on for a person he doesn’t know, and he has no power over this. Again, the lack of ability to give permission or remove permission for viewing his very young children in an undressed state is what’s so distressing here.

In the UK you DON’T HAVE A CHOICE …how is it that THE Euros arent saying anything?

no protests there.

i guess my point is that they should be even MORE up in arms and im hoping someone on this board starts the protest

It’s not paranoid to get pissed off when someone takes your child’s photograph without permission any more than it’s paranoid to want to confront someone when they cut in front of you in line at a movie theater. People are “free” to do that, too. It doesn’t make them any less of an asshole.

However, I agree that fear of pedophiles and international kidnappers trading pictures of my child at the park ranks up with “crazy driver running her over in our front yard” and “she disappears from her bed in the middle of the night with no clues” level of parent paranoia. So let’s start at that base level: People who take pictures of children without talking to the children’s parents first are assholes. Can you go that far with me?

You also said this:

“Ah… So you never take your kid into a drug store, gas station, convenience store, or department store? Pretty much all of which have video cameras recording all the time? Paranoia is the cause of this problem, not the solution.”

Right. I actually don’t let her leave the house without her homemade “Privacy Hood,” made out of recyclable grocery bags.

For real?

I don’t have any problem bringing my daughter into these places. I’ve been filmed in convenience stores and banks pretty much my whole life. So the idea of this being “without my consent” doesn’t wash. I know that this is happening, and because I selfishly want my groceries, clothes, etc., I take her in with me.

That’s what makes this new dilemma so strange. Normally, if someone asks to take a picture of my daughter, it works out fine. Now they’re asking me, “Do want a technician somewhere to see a picture of your daughter naked, have someone conduct a search that includes running their hand between her legs, or not ride in an airplane?”

I honestly can’t bring myself to say yes to either of the first two options.

It’s the naked scans, bitchy employees, flatulent passengers, insane luggage rules, screaming children and TSA thuggery that makes me take the train.

I’ve been in the US for 3 months now, and I’m really surprised about how security is such a great deal and how people in general are scared of everything (violence, terrorists, germs…). And I don’t think that 9/11 is solely responsible for this. What about these fallout shelters in many old buildings? I’ve never seen that in Europe. And although I’m too young for having experienced the cold war, when I read The Watchmen, I wonder if Americans were really that scared during this time. So much for the land of freedom…

I’m going to take the plane in December, and the airport now has a scanner… I planned on opting out on the scanner, mostly in protest… But I wonder why… I would just trade one unacceptable thing for another, I would feel isolated in this act, thus making it insignificant. I don’t think TSA is the problem or the obstacle. The obstacle would be the crowd looking at me and asking themselves, why does he refuse to go through the (innocent) scanner? Is he guilty? Why does he want to be humiliated in front of all of us?
There lies the problem, in the public accepting that, not in the authority enforcing it. Because if the public didn’t accept it, there would be no way to enforce it.

CowTip: If you ARE going to fly this holiday season, keep your camera-phones ready.

Also, they do close roads in specific instances like presidential motorcades.