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> there's no photographic evidence that can be stored indefinitely.

The machines are capable of storing the pictures, and all we have is the promise of a long abusive government agency that they are not.

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If TSA uses the same machines as the Department of State uses at embassies then I can speak from experience that the pictures are stored by default.

Having looked at the TSA documents in the EPIC lawsuit, the TSA operational requirements are that the machines must be incapable of storing the images.

Not that this makes me any more OK with subjecting myself (and inflicting upon others) what is essentially a strip search.

The machines are capable of storing images. Straight from the mouth of Gale Rossides, the Deputy Administrator of the TSA [1]. The functionality is supposed to be disabled after an install, but such safeguards seem tenuous at best.

[1] http://www.infowars.com/media/tsadoc.pdf

Yes, I agree. Maybe I was unclear above, but what I meant to say was that not being photographed was one of the main motivations I had for consenting to being patted down, despite the discomfort.

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