How about a bit of warranted cynicism: How do we know the high-res versions aren't being stored? It would be useful for them to do so, the images have been stored in the past, and the announcements don't mention storage, only display.
(For those unfamiliar: High-res versions have to be taken, they definitely do exist. The vague images the TSA personal see are the result of the original images being run through ATD (sometimes called ATR or AID) filters that boil the original image down to the important parts.)
Storing the original high-res versions would probably be fantastically useful. It would provide a good data source for real-world benchmarks and operational feedback for L3, but most enticingly it would provide an audit trail for post-incident analysis so investigators could re-examine the scanned data for a targeted individual.
Given that this is the age where, by default, we store everything and analyze it later, people did talk about storing the images, even if it was entirely low key. It's just too obviously useful.
I was looking into this recently, and I couldn't find anything about the new L3 ATD machines that mentioned whether the images are stored. The parent comment's links say nothing about it and I couldn't find anything else that did, including the L3 ProVision ATD product page[1].
It certainly seems strongly implied that the images are not stored. We read phrases from L3 like "processed by software without human intervention", but that sounds somewhat suspiciously specific. OK, no one is definitely and actively looking at it, but what about potentially and passively? Is it just bad wording on their part, or is someone actually trying to leave a loophole?
If they're going to scan us in a way we feel is invasive, is it too much to get some sort of assurance that the images are being handled properly? Frankly, an audit of the machines would be more than in proper order, given that it's handling sensitive data that needs to be carefully handled.
Can anyone point out something I've missed? Is there anything that talks about image storage, not just display?
[1]: http://www.sds.l-3com.com/advancedimaging/provision-at.htm