Drive-by X-ray vans raise privacy, health worries

people, but if they’re in there hiding, the ZBV will be able to spot them.”

Macedo writes, though, that according to the AS&E Web site, ZBVs also can peer through clothing and into “lightly constructed” buildings, raising serious concerns among privacy advocates.

“A van that can drive down the street and look through people’s clothes, look into vehicles and even peer into your home? I think that’s an invasion of privacy and not what we should be doing,” Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz told FoxNews.com.

AS&E says the system’s primary purpose is to screen vehicles and containers for contraband and security threats, and it does not violate a person’s privacy in the rare event an individual is scanned.

“If a person, such as an illegal stowaway, is present in the vehicle or container being scanned, the system creates only a silhouette with no facial or body detail,” the Web site says. “The system cannot be used to identify an individual, or the race or age of the person.”

Chaffetz, who is working on legislation aimed at limiting the use of the backscatter body scanners in airports, says the vans need restrictions. “There’s an appropriate use for these machines — at ports for instance, coming across the border and inspecting vehicles, hostage situations. But the company that develops these vans says they’ve sold more than 500 of these roving vans and I don’t know who’s purchased them,” he said. “I think we need to know.”