Pirate Party protests ‘naked’ scanners in their underpants

Despite the frigid temperatures outside, the protesters assembled nearly naked groups at airports in Berlin, Frankfurt and Düsseldorf on Sunday afternoon. The participants stripped down to their underpants, marching behinds signs that read: “No need to scan us – we’re already naked.”

A statement on the party’s website said they opposed the new security scanners because they threaten the “private sphere and the personal rights of passengers.”

Germany’s data protection commissioner, Peter Schaar, warned officials last week not to rush the implementation of the full-body scanners at airport security stations following a failed terrorist attack in the US last month. Critics are concerned that the devices, which allow security personnel to see through clothing, have not been improved enough to protect passengers’ personal rights.

Meanwhile Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives said use of the scanners would be fast-tracked for introduction within the year.

The German Pirate Party was inspired by the Swedish Piratpartiet and founded in 2006. In the September 2009 federal election they garnered two percent of the vote.