US security chief: Airport scanners not intrusive (AP)

WASHINGTON — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano says the FBI wants to speak with two men seen in at least one video from the Boston Marathon but says she isn’t calling them suspects. Without providing details of the men’s appearance or what the video shows, Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday that “there is some video that raised the question” of individuals the FBI would like to interview.

After the United States announced it was axing revealing full-body scanners it appears Canadian airports may not be too far behind. The Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the Transportation Security Authority (TSA) in 2010 over the scanners, claiming they went against privacy laws and said the machines were equivalent to a “physically invasive strip search.” Because their full-body scanner supplier, OSI Systems’ Rapiscan, is unable to produce the type of images they want, the TSA has decided to ended their $5 million contract.

This is a good post from Matt Yglesias:

Airport body scanners that privacy advocates have likened to strip searches are to be removed from U.S. airport because the company behind the machine couldn’t write software to make passenger images less revealing. Airline passengers were offended by the revealing images, including those of children and the elderly. The Washington- based Electronic Privacy Information Center sued the U.S. Transportation Security Administration in July 2010, claiming the scanners violated privacy laws and has called use of the machines equivalent to a “physically invasive strip search.”

Washington will try to convince the EU to install body scanners at its main airports for use by US-bound passengers at talks in Spain on Thursday but European officials are seeking privacy safeguards before agreeing to the measure.US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is attending an informal meeting of interior ministers in Toledo to try to strike a deal, deemed crucial following last month's failed bomb plot on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

OTTAWA — The federal government is changing the software on the full-body scanners used to provide security at airports so they no longer produce a complete outline of a traveller’s body. Transport Canada says the new technology, already in use in the U.S. and the Netherlands, will increase privacy while still ensuring security. The scanners have been in use at Canadian airports for three years and there now are 52 of the devices installed across the country.

The EU's anti-terror coordinator Gilles de Kerchove backs the use of full body scanners at airports, saying they would be "very effective" as long as privacy concerns can be overcome."I am in favour of the body scanners, as long as there are rules in place" to assure passengers over the images displayed, he told AFP on Friday.The Spanish EU presidency called Thursday for a common European stance on the use of body scanners at airports as member states bicker over the issue which has been highlighted by a failed plot to blow up a US airplane.

US officials are deploying "the latest tools" to keep cyberspace safe for commerce and protect the US information infrastructure, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said.Napolitano, speaking at the National Press Club, emphasized that homeland security and US economic security "go hand in hand.""Cyberspace is an increasingly busy area for all of us," said Napolitano in her annual speech on the state of US homeland security.