Community Corner

Distributing Body Scan Photos Will Be A Crime

A new law turns authorities and security personnel who distribute body scans into criminals.

Despite the impression given by the most high in New York history, most Queens residents don't want racy photos of themselves distributed to others.

Now there's a law that criminalizes the distribution of anatomically detailed personal images taken by body scanners.

Living in the Borough of Airports, Queens residents who have traveled through LaGuardia or JFK are all too aware of recent security protocol mandating the passage through a body scanning machine that allows a stranger to examine contours and shapes usually hidden by clothing.

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The law, which takes effect in November of this year, simply declares:

A PERSON IS GUILTY OF UNLAWFUL DISSEMINATION OF A BODY SCAN, WHEN HE OR SHE, WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE PERSON OF WHOM THE SCAN WAS MADE, KNOWINGLY DISSEMINATES A BODY SCAN TAKEN FOR LEGAL SECURITY PURPOSES, OR ANY IMAGE OR IMAGES DERIVED FROM SUCH SCAN, TO ANY PERSON WHO HAS NOT BEEN AUTHORIZED TO RECEIVE SUCH SCAN PURSUANT TO STATE OR FEDERAL STATUTE OR REGULATION.

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UNLAWFUL DISSEMINATION OF A SECURITY BODY SCAN IS A CLASS A MISDEMEANOR.

The bill's co-sponsor, Senator Tony Avella, D-Bayside, said he has had constituents complain to him they would rather not fly than go through the scanners. Their sensibilities may have been informed by .

He intends for the law to, "increase public awareness and increase penalties for those that violate the public trust," he said in a statement.

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