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American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

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Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#21

Post by mnm1 »

bobthepanda wrote: post #9
mnm1 wrote: post #2

How can you have privacy concerns in a completely public space?

An airplane isn't really public space like the street, since you can't just waltz into an airplane free of charge, and airplanes are not generally owned directly by the public. They are managed places open to the public for a price, and that payment comes with certain expectations (e.g., there wasn't a camera present 20 years ago, why should it be present now?)

Nothing about paying for a service disallows the airline company from putting cameras in the public space they operate for a profit unless it's specified in the contract that they are not allowed to do so. I guarantee you they did not put restrictions like that on themselves in the contract with the customer. Your argument that cameras did not exist in these spaces 20 years ago is completely irrelevant to what the airline can do now. If you don't like it, get the laws changed. By this reasoning, the airport itself could not put up security cameras beyond the security checkpoints where only ticketed passengers are allowed. That's absurd.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#22

Post by filmgirlcw »

I understand why airlines and other industries are using off-the-shelf parts; I actually prefer this because it gets us closer to more modular IFE systems like what Delta/GoGo are doing on the A220, which means airlines can conceivably upgrade their IFE systems more frequently and at lower costs.

What I don’t understand is why there aren’t commodify parts available sans cameras, given the myriad of use-cases and the customer volume for camera-free Android/Linux/QNX (I doubt QNX is even a player given their royalties but just thinking of what embedded systems are available) tablets.

Anyway, it would take very little effort to assuage customers by blocking the cameras. If a 2¢ cover is too much, gaffer tape would work. It’s disappointing — though not surprising — that the airline industry hasn’t done this.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#25

Post by bobthepanda »

mnm1 wrote: post #21
bobthepanda wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An airplane isn't really public space like the street, since you can't just waltz into an airplane free of charge, and airplanes are not generally owned directly by the public. They are managed places open to the public for a price, and that payment comes with certain expectations (e.g., there wasn't a camera present 20 years ago, why should it be present now?)

Nothing about paying for a service disallows the airline company from putting cameras in the public space they operate for a profit unless it's specified in the contract that they are not allowed to do so. I guarantee you they did not put restrictions like that on themselves in the contract with the customer. Your argument that cameras did not exist in these spaces 20 years ago is completely irrelevant to what the ai…

Nothing disallows it. But just because it's perfectly legal doesn't mean that consumers don't have the right to question it and then agitate against it, which is what is happening in the article. The legal code is not perfect.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#26

Post by Someone1234 »

tomjakubowski wrote: post #12
Someone1234 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the people who disagree with this reply should explain their reasoning. You're in public on an aircraft, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. The people around you, including the airline's staff, can listen to your conversations/see you. I'm not even arguing legally, even just in terms of common sense, everything you do or say is isn't private in those circumstances. So a camera being there (regardl…

Sure, there are other, strange people on board. It would be uncomfortable if one of them positioned their face right in front of mine and stared at me, listening, the entire flight. The camera would bother me likewise.

Even if they blocked the camera then the argument would shift to the microphone which may still work even if physically blocked.

Plus you're contrasting the invasion of personal space, with the perception that a non-privacy space is now non-privacy.

But since the space was never private to being with has anything changed or has the airline just ruined your own fiction about the space?

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#27

Post by deogeo »

Someone1234 wrote: post #7
mnm1 wrote: post #2

How can you have privacy concerns in a completely public space?

I think the people who disagree with this reply should explain their reasoning. You're in public on an aircraft, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. The people around you, including the airline's staff, can listen to your conversations/see you. I'm not even arguing legally, even just in terms of common sense, everything you do or say is isn't private in those circumstances. So a camera being there (regardl…

Do not equate being seen by random people next to you, to multinational corporations monitoring your facial expressions, gaze direction, mood, who you're talking to and how much, and saving that data indefinitely, to be sold, shared, or used in any way possible to extract more money.

It's the difference between a neighbor, and a neighbor who is also an informant.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#29

Post by gwbas1c »

These stories remind me of something that happened in my first internship in 2000.

One of the interns that I worked with left a week earlier than I did so he could have some R & R. That Monday, we all got an email from him that went something like, "Check out my WebCam!!!!"

I clicked on the link, and my screen was filled with a picture of him with his finger fully up his nose, picking a winner.

Would have been better if we saw the full booger.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#30

Post by [deleted] »

Someone1234 wrote: post #7
mnm1 wrote: post #2

How can you have privacy concerns in a completely public space?

I think the people who disagree with this reply should explain their reasoning. You're in public on an aircraft, you have no reasonable expectation of privacy. The people around you, including the airline's staff, can listen to your conversations/see you. I'm not even arguing legally, even just in terms of common sense, everything you do or say is isn't private in those circumstances. So a camera being there (regardl…

[deleted]
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