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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.)
When I was a kid, they used to have cameras on our school busses. Nobody was really sure whether they were 'on' or not. The bus drives used to use it as leverage so we didn't screw around.
- tom -
An airline is a private organization. You're free to choose whether or not you fly with them. If you're going to step on board their property, you've got to follow their rules--it's that simple.
"Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
Not really a problem - they just wanted it filmed. Open up a web site devoted to mile-high orgy video and make some extra cash on the side... new business strategy.
The other people don't have my personal details and they won't remember what I did for the next 10 years...
It seems like people have taken to appending that phrase, "the privacy implications here are worrying" to every article they submit. It's a fucking airplane, people - since when do you expect to have privacy?
Christ, talk about a knee-jerk reaction. About the worst this will do is enable a bored technician to watch you pick your nose ten years from now, and the best it will do is help the FBI catch a terrorist (or even an ordinary, everyday criminal).
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That 'tool' was John Gilmore; a co-founder of the EFF.
I'm not one to agree with his actions; he had to have known that wearing such a pin would cause problems. Then again, I'm fairly sure Rosa Parks had to have known that not giving up her seat would cause problems, too.
Now, before I'm shouted down for drawing that comparison, let me point out that, no, I don't believe the two actions are of the same importance, but Gilmore's message is no less respectable: a cry to bring some measure of sanity to the airline industry.
How much government money has been thrown at existing air carriers of late? They're living in their own world right now, where they use taxpayer money and have common carrier status, yet seem to be exempt from the finer points of Constitutional decree. They just have way too much lattitude to govern peoples' behavior, and they chose to use that lattitude to install a false sense of security for the absolute dumbest fucktard imaginable.
Any rational person would view Gilmore's button as a political statement. Any reasonably intelligent person realizes that he can even more damage with his bare hands than a pair of nail clippers. Even the dumbest of the dumb realize that a 3-inch G.I. Joe doll's gun poses no threat to anyone.
Yet the airlines continue to enforce these absurd policies, and have turned flying into such a frustrating, nerve-wracking experience, that people just want to scream! Enough of this crap!
And if the above plea for sanity doesn't sway you, think of it this way:
The government is pouring tons of taxpayer money into an existing private industry that's a borderline monopoly (well, more an oligopoly), and exists to serve the public, yet is still allowed to behave as an entirely private industry, free from the constraints of Constitutional decree.
Sound like any other industry you know of? Maybe those telecoms we all hate so much, here on Slashdot?
It's the same concept: out tax dollars are being spent on a private, non-competetive industry. So where's our say? Why is our money being given to another industry that's just going to turn around and screw us over?
With the RIAA, it's our money. With the telecoms, it's our money. With the airlines, it's our money and our rights.