171–180 of 233 posts
United has several planes with what appear to be active IR LEDs in the same spot on the front bezel. Any idea what those are doing? Tracking empty seats? Movement for some reason?
It's for detecting when your hands move towards the display, and turning on LEDs in response (for instance, many in-seat monitors have a USB socket with a LED ring around it) - I worked on those units many years ago.
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An airport is a public space. A plane seat is semi-private or at least has always had that expectation. And given that it was placed there by the people owning the plane, it is well within the bounds of what passengers can expect to demand changed by said owners.
Not sure I agree re: the seat being semi-private. Surely it must be expected that there is surveillance in general on airplanes? As there is in any other public transportation (train, subway, taxi, etc..) I guess the whole controversy seems very knee-jerk and out of touch with the existing level of monitoring already on board the plane and in the airport.
You might reasonably expect a bouncer or a security guard at a concert to be overlooking a crowd. You wouldn't expect one assigned specifically to you breathing in front of your face.
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…
For all the crap we give China and their authoritarian government, airport security is FAR easier at every Chinese airport I've been to. Walk through a metal detector and get a quick non-invasive pat down.
Hell there aren't mass shootings in China either. Again, authoritarians often cite Order as the result of just giving in to their oppressive tactics.
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I've yet to go through any of these machines since they were implemented. I have opted out every flight, every time.
In that case they don't have a picture, but they do know what they feel like, and if they don't, it just takes one ornery TSA agent for it to happen. It's a thoroughly miserable process no matter what way you slice it.
I'd rather not feel negatively for no reason, because it hurts me and doesn't help me in any way. Maybe you have a better reason to go through life unhappily, but I don't.
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Sure -- but that also depends on your class of cabin, your flight length, all kinds of things. I fly a lot for work (I'm already at 67k miles flown for 2019 -- that's actual miles not airline miles (so that 67k is lower than my status miles)) and for anything over 6 hours or so, I fly business (unless I get an upgrade on a short-haul) and have had 6 flights over 10 hours this year, where I tend to have a lay flat bed…
If the $10k tickets provide a private area separated from the other passengers with a partition that prevents observation then I'd expect privacy from being recorded. Likewise in a hotel room, it's a solitary space separate from others and I'd expect privacy from being recorded or observed by employees entering my room. I'd share your same outrage! However my experience stems from two long haul flights in economy and…
In many business class seats, they are designed so that you cannot even see the person adjacent to you unless you specifically put your head out of the curved herringbone shell -- and that's when you're sitting. If you're laying flat, your head is completely obscured by the seat.
Delta and Qatar have doors on some of their business class seats.
People walking through the cabin can observe people sleeping, of course -- but these products are literally designed for sleeping and privacy. It's one of the reasons they charge such a premium for those tickets.
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In that case they don't have a picture, but they do know what they feel like, and if they don't, it just takes one ornery TSA agent for it to happen. It's a thoroughly miserable process no matter what way you slice it.
I just don't go in with a toxic mindset and have never had a bad experience. I'd rather not feel negatively for no reason, because it hurts me and doesn't help me in any way. Maybe you have a better reason to go through life unhappily, but I don't.
Actually surprised there's no cameras on planes (that I know of at least). Buses, subways, other mass transit have cameras. And I've seen no one complain about the cameras some food chains use in their table-side checkout systems. Red Robin is the first that comes to mind. It sits there your entire meal... Obviously it's to take your pic when you swipe your credit card (and apparently scan coupons and gift cards).
Those kiosks have cameras in them? I've used them dozens of times and never realized, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
https://www.ziosk.com/the-experience
"Scan coupons and gift cards with the built-in camera"
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?
In terms of corporate espionage, our security tells us to never work on sensitive documents while on a plane as it's considered a "public space".
How can you have privacy concerns in a completely public space?
Would you want to go to a movie theatre where audience engagement is recorded by a hidden, undisclosed camera? Would you prefer that? People are right to have instinctual suspicion of being covertly spied upon en masse in public spaces.