British Airways Plans To Google Passengers

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."

Comments

What if your name doesn't come up?

[Kagetsuki]

Or what if it's the wrong person with your name? I know my name doesn't show up for me at all (I'm not registered by my real name on social networks etc.).

Re:What if your name doesn't come up?

[Kazymyr]

The only things that show up when you google my real name are a few usenet posts that I made in one of the Linux kernel groups circa 1999. That ought to keep some airline people wondering.

Re:What if your name doesn't come up?

[TheRaven64]

They're not doing this for everyone, they're doing it for people flying first class who might expect to be recognised. They don't want a flight attendant who sees Balmer having laptop problems to attempt to be friendly saying 'mine always crashes too', or similar. That sort of thing can easily lose an airline a lot of money, which is why they already try to brief cabin crew on any VIPs.

Re:What if your name doesn't come up?

[Anonymous Coward]

I fly BA at least twice a month. Their googling of my name plus the town of my address will return

An Actor
Four Footballers (soccer to you heathens)
A Cricketer
An author
A golfer
An Estate Agent

But not me.
Which one will they address me as the next time I fly.
They probably know a lot about me anyway as I'm a BA Avios Gold Card holder.

Re:What if your name doesn't come up?

[FatLittleMonkey]

Ditto. I do sometimes worry whether this will be an issue one day. At some point, will being unable to datamine you, be like not having a credit record; where, even though you're not a bad risk, they still won't/can't deal with you.

Having a company (an airline, hotel, etc) refuse you a booking, being denied a job, or even having legal problems [**], not because you've done anything wrong, but just because their screening procedures are so tied up with datamining social networking, that they literally can't process anyone who maintains separate online/offline identities. (And as there's fewer and fewer people who will fall into this category, they have no motivation to fix it, and frankly find "people like you" suspicious anyway.)

[** Not only are police using social networking sites to research suspects; but I wonder if separate online/offline identies are already considered "aliases"?]

Re:What if your name doesn't come up?

[sir-gold]

So in order to keep Steve Balmer happy, they will hide the truth from him.

And people wonder why Balmer is running MS into the ground. Maybe it's because everyone is tiptoeing around him, making sure his rose-colored glasses never come off

Re:What if your name doesn't come up?

[mcgrew]

From TFS: "The idea behind the 'Know Me' program is that by using Google Images to ID passengers". They're not searching by name, they're searching for your name. They simply won't find yours.

But hell, I googled my 81 year old dad's name and found his picture and baby picture, and he's never used a computer in his life. Apparently a distant relative had been doing genealogy research and posting it. I found his mother there, too.

Try googling your full name and see what happens. You'll be shocked at what you find. Ever buy a house? If so, your full name is on the internet.

Creepiness is not the feeling resturants go for

[whois]

There are several ways to do this that don't involve invading your privacy any more than they already have by making you present papers to fly. They already have all the information you could want in their database about your trips with them. Attaching a photo to it does nothing more than give someone a feeling of unease the moment you've pulled off this sham.

I dislike it when the coffee shop employees use my name without having been introduced because it's unexpected. The first thing that goes through your head is how did this person know my name, then you work backwards and figure it out. "Oh, they read it off my credit card." The uneasiness goes away but the feeling that something wasn't quite right with your experience is still there. Now try it in a situation where you can't figure it out because there’s a third party involved?

Situation: Man you've never seen before approaches you in an airport and says "Mr. Smith?" What is your immediate reaction?

First you're trying to figure out where you've met the person before, then you're trying to figure out if something is wrong or if they're a thief or confidence man playing you because obviously they've overheard your name from somewhere? You're never able to make the connection that they've "recognized" you because they haven't. They weren't even introduced by a mutual acquaintance like the front desk clerk because in a giant airport it would be impossible to believe that the front desk clerk described you well enough to be tracked down.

You will always be left with a feeling that shenanigans have happened and it won't make you happy. Unless you're an extremely trusting grandmotherly type person who finds the novelty to be so interesting you forget your suspicions; If you are in that particular demographic then the novelty of hearing your name called over the intercom so you can come to the desk and be updated would be just as effective as the above.

Finally, I'm in a position of choice in what has become an increasingly hostile market due to security theater. Every chance I get I will choose the airline that isn't creepy internet stalking me.

Re:Fake personal touch != personal touch

[Trepidity]

I agree for "regular" people, but it sounds like they're targeting this at first-class passengers who might expect to be recognized, and may even have their egos bruised if they aren't. So BA is going to pull up a bunch of photos for the flight attendants peruse, in order to ensure that they don't accidentally fail to recognize a CEO or pop star or whoever.

It's still fake, but seems like a kind of faking that might work. Especially with people who want to believe it's real, that they're so famous that of course the flight attendants recognized them.

Wyndham did this to me to sell a timeshare

[garcia]

A buddy of mine invited me and another friend to come stay at a Wyndham resort in WI for a ski weekend a few years ago. We stayed at a resort with multiple restaurants and shops on site.

Very long and creepy story short, in an attempt to sell more points to my friend (who was on his parent's million+ account) they Googled for us and knew everything about me including my preferences for music, good food, etc and tried to use that as leverage.

Outcomes:

1. It was uncomfortable because they only had a cursory knowledge of what I liked and they weren't really applying it well enough.

2. It was fucking SUPER creepy that they knew anything at all about me. Honestly, it was unnerving.

3. I don't want strangers treating me like I am eating at my favorite restaurant where I know the owner. You know why? Because they forgot the steps involved to get to that point--the one where you get to know someone from more than a cursory glance at Google.

--

Do not fucking do this. Thanks.