Invasion of Privacy.

There’s an ad on my Hotmail home page for a portable X-ray machine. The accompanying picture indicates that its presumed popularity will be due to its being able to reveal what lies beneath a woman’s clothing.

I find this both disturbing and mystifying. The statute book is laden with privacy legislation these days, and I would say there are few things more private than a woman’s body. I remember the understandable howls of protest when compulsory body scanning was being introduced at British airports as an alleged security measure. So how is a company allowed to market something like this to all and sundry?

This is one occasion when I hope the marketing turns out to be an even bigger con than usual. I truly hope that all the people buying these things will find the results falling woefully short of expectation and be sadly disappointed.