EPIC has obtained more than one hundred fifty pages of
documents detailing the Department of Homeland Security’s development of mobile
body scanners and other crowd surveillance technology. The documents
were obtained as a result of a Freedom Information Act
lawsuit brought by EPIC against the federal agency. According to the documents
obtained by EPIC, vehicles equipped with mobile body scanners are
designed to scan crowds and pedestrians on the street and can see
through bags, clothing, and even other vehicles. The
documents also reveal that the mobile backscatter machines cannot be American
National Standards Institute “certified people scanners” because of the
high level of radiation output and because subjects would not know they
have been scanned. For more information see
EPIC: Whole Body Imaging Technology and
EPIC: EPIC v. DHS (Suspension of the Body Scanner Program).