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British Airways Plans To Google Passengers

Posted by timothy on from the only-miscreants-and-terrorists-would-object dept.

itwbennett writes "British Airways wants to be the airline where everybody knows your name. The idea behind the 'Know Me' program is that by using Google Images to ID passengers, they'll be able to recreate the 'feeling of recognition you get in a favourite restaurant,' Jo Boswell, head of customer analysis at BA told the London Evening Standard. But the more privacy minded among us know that the airline could end up seeing a lot more than your face."

8 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. Fake personal touch != personal touch by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If I'm recognised in a favourite restaurant it's because we know each other well enough for that. If a stewardess I've never met before "recognises" me I know it's fake. The feeling I will probably get is of someone playing manipulative games with me.

    1. Re:Fake personal touch != personal touch by newcastlejon · · Score: 5, Insightful

      One would think BA would have learnt from Starbucks' mistake. Scratch that, British Airways should already be fully aware of the British people's contempt for such phoney chumminess. By and large, we just want to be given our coffee or shown to our seat and then left in peace.

      I'm sure the flight attendants are nice people, but they're not my friends and they ought not to act like they are. They should act like professionals instead.

      --
      If God forks the Universe every time you roll a die, he'd better have a damned good memory.
    2. Re:Fake personal touch != personal touch by houghi · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is the same fake personal touch some callcenters insist of using my name 27 times in a 30 second conversation.

      If I compare that with how many times people say my name when they know me and are talking to me, it is incredible that they still think it is something personal.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
  2. I don't want this. by Dark$ide · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I want British Airways to fly me from LHR to wherever in the shortest time at the lowest cost. I don't want them to LIKE me on Facebook as part of the process of doing that.

    If they need a nice little pocket sized document with my photo, my date of birth and a unique reference number they can use the nice booklet that cost me £90 from HM Passport Agency.

    --

    Sigs. We don't need no steenking sigs.

  3. "Fakyness" = bad customer service by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It kinda creeps me out when clerks act all "chummy".

  4. Which Feeling of Recognition? by Bob9113 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    they'll be able to recreate the 'feeling of recognition you get in a favourite restaurant,'

    I think they're a little more likely to create the feeling of recognition that you get when the creepy, slightly desperate receptionist asks about your dog by name, despite the fact that you haven't told anyone at the office that you have a dog.

    --
    Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
  5. Re:What if your name doesn't come up? by AngryDeuce · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Exactly. My name is about as common as 'John Smith' here in the U.S.; there is a major Hollywood composer that's done the soundtracks of hundreds of films over the last 30 or so years, professional athletes, a country music star, and an actor sharing my name, and that's just off the top of my head. If you were to Google me I'd bet you'd have to go 30 pages deep to find a link that is even possibly connected to me in any way, shape or form.

    Hell, just within my home state there are dozens of results for my name, nationwide, there's probably thousands of people with the same first and last name as me. Unless you have a very unique name, I don't see how this is going to be effective at all...

  6. Re:Wyndham did this to me to sell a timeshare by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Insightful

    So you published information that was meant to be read by your friends and family, which somehow ended up in the hands of someone other than expected, and you were surprised?