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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

#181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't like it and if I noticed I'd politely ask them to stop. However, (and I'm not a lawyer) I don't think it'd be illegal or even unethical. If someone was recording me napping on a plane I'd treat it the same way as if I was napping under a tree in a national park. It would be a non issue for me. Privacy is something I control by not exposing sensitive information in areas where recording is a possibility. I…

Pretty sure someone could experience serious ramifications if they persisted recording you after being asked to stop. They might even be met by police at the destination and banned for life if they refused the commands from flight attendants after their inevitable involvement.

Flight attendants do seem to have a lot of discretion when it comes to instructing passengers and I know that failing to follow safety related instructions can lead to bans or police involvement.

I'm not sure if they'd be able to extend that to someone recording me although it likely varies by country. I think British law considers continued recording a form of harassment where the same protections don't exist in America.

If I was really really bothered by it for some reason I might raise it once. The cabin crew has the safety of the flight and other responsibilities to be concerned with.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#182
post #3
post #2

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.

Would you want to go to a movie theatre where audience engagement is recorded by a hidden, undisclosed camera?

Deployed since 2004 to look for camcorders.[1] Disney tried out technology for recording audience engagement in a theater in 2017. [2][3] "We instrumented a 400 seat movie theater using four infra-red (IR) cameras and four IR illuminators placed above the projection screen. The cameras were outfitted with IR bandpass filters to remove the spill of visible light that reflected off the movie screen. The video was recorded at 12 frames per second with a resolution of 2750×2200 pixels. The resolution of faces ranged from 15×25 (back rows) to 40×55 (front rows). We collected over 150 viewings of 9 mainstream movies released in 2015 and 2016". They show graphs for laughing and smiling over time for Inside Out. So it works. Coming soon to a theater near you, probably.

Cinemark installed intensive surveillance of the concession stand.[4] That's where the money is made. "The concessions people could look through every kids’ combo that was sold across a region and see whether they are actually attracting children or if they are trading down college-aged women who would’ve bought a larger size of all of those items if you didn’t have that meal option for them."

[1] http://www.pirateeye.com/pirateeye/technology/

[2] https://web.archive.org/web/20171116222427/https://www.disne...

[3] https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/disneyresearch/wp-content...

[4] http://www.filmjournal.com/content/envysion-better-business-...

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"You know what, I'm looking forward to having my privacy violated! I hope they stop me for packing some cookies in my carry on!"

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Imagine if cameras could read your retinas and identify you like in Minority Report ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bXJ_obaiYQ ). Though we're not there yet, facial recognition tech is almost ready for something similar.

In this case wouldn't that point be irrelevant? Generally airlines have assigned seating and they already have validation of your identity from the booking information.

Yes, in the case of flying on a commercial flight they already have your identity. The parent that I was responding to assumed the more general case though:

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

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the market for Android tablets (units per year) for airlines, compared to retail? I would suspect retail vastly outnumbers it, hence being considerably cheaper. What other use cases are you thinking of that would have significant volume?

Medical facilities, government (where cameras are almost always disabled at the software/MDM level), any secure area where a front-facing camera isn't ideal. Military and hospitals alone would strike me as being a big enough market to at least deserve a SKU/option.

Most medical facilities that I know use Apple tablets, and there isn't a chance in hell that Apple is releasing a tablet without a camera.

Mostly, making just one SKu drops the price and inventory handling so incredibly much that it isn't worthwhile. Especially when most people believe it is secure enough just to disable it in software. That said, most security minded people may not believe that, but it seems they are in the minority when it comes to business decision making.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#187

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).

BART has cameras near every door. They recently updated them so that all of them work. Until mid 2016, only 23% of them did. Given that it's BART, I'd flip a coin to determine if any particular one still does work.

https://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2017/news20170628

https://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/BART-admits-77-percent-...

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#188

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.

> 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.

flying domestically I had my eyes scanned and thumb print taken, and was tracked more or less everywhere I went.

Are you arguing this is a good thing?

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#189

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…

The recently passed California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) requires that any collection of biometric information to be disclosed and along with who the data is being sold to. The law goes into effect on January 1st, 2020 so we'll know then and in the future if they are doing any kind of personal identification at all.

Given the tablets can't even scroll through a list of movies without lagging and show everyone the same 2 minute Honda commercial before each movie despite already knowing who you are from your ID and frequent flyer number, I'd venture that the airlines haven't figured out how to do eye tracking yet.

Re: American Airlines Has Cameras in Their Screens Too

#190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

"You know what, I'm looking forward to having my privacy violated! I hope they stop me for packing some cookies in my carry on!"

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