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Southeast To Start Video Monitoring Flights
NormalVisual writes "According to this article, Southeast Airlines will begin digitally recording everything that goes on during one of their flights. Moreover, they have said they will be retaining the recorded video for up to 10 years. The privacy implications here are worrying, and this sets a bad precedent, IMO." (Southeast is a charter company, not a big scheduled carrier.)
recording is fine for security e.g. recording violent passengers.
but I see no reason to keep the tapes, especially for 10 years. (plus increased fares for storing all these files?)
also, recording private conversations with no prior good reason and without consent is not acceptable imo.
here in the UK, the data protection act means (IANAL) that you must be provided with a copy of all footage of yourself if requested.
Maybe that should be their prerogative, but a public accommodation, it isn't.
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Not when the private entity is a common carrier, then the Constitution is in full power. An airline is a common carrier.
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This is a lot like contracts. There are some rights you can give up in a contract, and some that you cannot. Likewise, there are some things you can do if you warn someone, and some things you cannot.
You can't legislate goodness. Let each to his own destiny, by will of his freely made choices.
If you book a trip with Apple Vacations, you will fly on Southeast Airlines. Southeast is a subsidiary of Apple.
www.applevacations.com
I work part time for a school bus company, so here goes. Until about a year ago, they had a ton of the boxes they install on the buses, but only 2 cameras to put in these boxes to go around. To get an idea this bus company has ~200 buses, but not all the buses have a box in them. I'd say about 1/2.
Because of this, only the real problem buses got the cameras. The cameras recorded onto a tape that looped every couple of hours, so unless they pulled the tape out of the bus for review it just recorded over itself.
One some buses, there was a switch on the dashboard that would turn the camera on and off. Sometimes it was unlabeled, other times it had some nonsense label like "Landing Light" or "Sign Light" or something like that. Other buses simply ran the camera when the ignition was on. The blinking red light would blink regardless of switch position, camera installed or not.
Sometimes they would tell the driver there was a camera in the bus, sometimes they don't. I think this was to keep the drivers on their toes more than anything else, because the cameras can also record what the driver does. Nevertheless, the driver does not have keys to open the box.
In the last year or two, all the new buses they have purchased come with cameras preinstalled. Unlike the old buses with a one way mirror, these buses you can clearly see the camera behind the glass. The trick though is that under the dashboard there is a box that holds a VCR, and they only have so many of these VCRs to go around. So while each new bus clearly has a camera, not all are recording.
I have seen footage from the new bus cameras and it is quite good too. The old ones weren't so hot. I think the new ones are digital but I'm not sure (haven't asked).
The contents of their sketch pad isn't compelling evidence in the same way as pictures are. They could have just drawn anything, so it's all down to how credible they can make themselves look.
If someone sent your wife a drawing of you having sex with another woman, she probably wouldn't divorce you (the baby eating bishop of Bath and Wells aside). If they sent her a photo of the same, however, you might be in a spot of trouble.
Eventually, as CGI improves, photos will probably be losing their power as objective evidence. When you can easily produce photo-realistic fake images of anyone doing anything to anyone just spending a couple of hours with your $50 photo shop package, people will start taking it less seriously.
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The sheer amount of data generated simply prevent them to keep data indefinitly. (At least on quick access storage). Here around we keep passenger RES/TKT data (on tape) for 3 years and only for liability purpose. CKI data (on tape) are kept 180 days. Again only for liability purpose and in normal case nobody read those tape. And seeing how reading one is slow as hell , trust me on that one marketing drone would be totally unable to read one. I find it interresting that they want to keep video data for 10 years, because if there was liability this would be within the few month/first year. 5 or 9 year later ... Well... So I find it strange. But then again I am no marketing/security guy only programmer.
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The airlines will do their best to make sure that footage is under lock and key. Can't have something like that floating around and frightening off the flying public. Even the released cockpit recordings are edited so that the passengers' wails can't be heard.
Yeah and swimming halls can freely put cameras in the showers?
Just because they are providing the service, doesn't mean that they can do anything with your private information.
There's such a thing as expectation of privacy. You've every right to expect privacy in a shower but you've no right to expect privacy in a shop, restaurant, public highway or plane seat.
Why? Because, unless you're invisible, people can see you in a shop, restaurant, public highway or plane seat. If this is a problem for you I suggest that you do one of the following:
1. never leave the house; or
2. learn how to become invisible.
Good luck with number 2.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
The airline is Southeast, not Southwest.
I just thought I'd point this out, before people start changing their travel plans.
This is purely a charter-plane operation here, so the most likely criminal they'll spot is the white-collar robber who is spending his ill-gotten loot under a pseudonym... pulling the video is a good way to match a pseudonym to a face.
What is everyone whining about. We already have video cameras in every other conceivable public place. You can't buy a cherry squishy without the convenience store camera watching. Besides, the airline has valid security reasons, as they mention in the article, such as air rage. I don't want some drunken idiot endangering the plane and then have his case get thrown out because of lack of evidence. And for those of you worried about the demise of the mile-high club, they do mention the bathrooms won't have cameras (that you know about)!
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