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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

#111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I will bet some money that they have not been used nefariously by AA or SQ. not yet Given the last 20 years of bad behavior from tech companies overall, and the steady erosion of privacy in nearly all quarters, I question your confidence and must ask "based on what ?"

AA isn’t a tech company. There revenue isn’t based on selling eyeballs.

They can always diversify and milk out even more money out of their customers.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#112
post #58
post #8

Most of these are just COTS Android tablets. When they reboot the IFE, you sometimes see the Android soft home/menu button on the bottom. It's easy enough to repair, too -- just apply some opaque tape to the camera.

> Most of these are just COTS Android tablets This isn't quite true. They're not off-the-shelf (COTS) Android tablets - the hardware is custom, especially in terms of industrial design (although the chipset is pretty standard). IFE manufacturers aren't going to OEMs and re-purposing commercial tablet designs. You couldn't use off-the-shelf tablets anyway, because they have lithium batteries in them - and whilst the f…

> larger than any tablet available today.

Not any tablet - I refer you to the 18" Samsung Galaxy View.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#113
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using WiFi would be very surprising for most content, but it would be interesting to have live TV on aircraft.

How so? United's IFE is an app you install on your phone/tablet or website you use on your laptop to watch media and it's all wifi.

But it’s not clear if that comes from a local cache on the plane or if it uses the actual uplink. I doubt it’s the latter because a satellite connection isn’t going to support 300 concurrent video streams.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#114
post #100

It's ironic that in the book 1984 all the citizens have hidden cameras in their TVs. Today, in 2019, all the citizens have non-hidden cameras and microphones in pretty much every electronic device they use. We also have the customary day of rage, where we all direct our collective rage at some political opponent. Don't get me started on the butchering of the English language...

It's been a while since I've read it, but wasn't everyone in 1984 well aware of the cameras in their telescreens? That's why Wilson sought out a corner of his room where he was out of view of the camera?

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#115
post #100

It's ironic that in the book 1984 all the citizens have hidden cameras in their TVs. Today, in 2019, all the citizens have non-hidden cameras and microphones in pretty much every electronic device they use. We also have the customary day of rage, where we all direct our collective rage at some political opponent. Don't get me started on the butchering of the English language...

Sorry to nitpick but the cameras in the TVs in 1984 where not hidden. They even had a speaker and the government was able to talk directly to an individual through them.

The problem there, and here, is people don't really care.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#116
They already take a high resolution back scatter shot of my genitals on the way in, what's a little more humiliation among friends? If they want to spend 6 hours watching me make pained expressions as I shift and turn and feel the bits that make me human slowly slip away, leaving me a crippled, grunting inhuman beast by the time I get out of the aluminum can full of other peoples farts, I guess they are welcome to it.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#117

Most airplanes have built-in CCTV cameras whose explicit purpose is to record everyone in the cabin for the entire flight. So do MUNI buses. Instead people are raising the issue of a stock camera that's obviously not being used to record. There would be no way to keep that a secret, everything in an airplane has to be FAA approved.

A CCTV camera from an angle far(relatively) away at the front and back of the cabin isn't the same level as one in the device staring you in the face. How long until that camera gets enabled to do eyetracking for ad and premium services tracking. Whos to say its not already? Mixed it in with facial recognition so they can sell that data to other ad agencies and now you see the problem with allowing the camera to exis…

Why are you more concerned about the tablet camera than the camera hidden in the air vent to steal your passwords?

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>I will bet some money that they have not been used nefariously by AA or SQ. not yet Given the last 20 years of bad behavior from tech companies overall, and the steady erosion of privacy in nearly all quarters, I question your confidence and must ask "based on what ?"

AA isn’t a tech company. There revenue isn’t based on selling eyeballs.

Those in seat screens have advertisements on them you know.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#119

To me this is just a distraction. Yes there's a hardware camera. I will bet some money that they have not been used nefariously by AA or SQ. Some are raging about the non-existant theoretical privacy violation (again, not 100% non-existant, but I will bet money there's no surveillance through this camera), meanwhile we are ignoring actual privacy violations being done by e.g. Facebook or Twitter, or the millions of a…

> meanwhile we are ignoring actual privacy violations being done by e.g. Facebook or Twitter, or the millions of ad networks

This is becoming a form of digital whataboutism and false equivalence. I can't read comments about seatback airline cameras without being reminded of these other "violations" as though they are related. Maybe the collective "we" are ignoring them because "we" don't consider them privacy violations or just don't care, despite the fact that those bombarding us want us to.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#120
What's the big deal, though? Its not like these devices are in your home -- they are in a public space that is well known to be heavily surveiled.

So I guess, even in the worst case scenario where these cameras were recording you, what is so different from the other 500x camera FOVs you step into during your journey? What am I missing?

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