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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."

12 of 177 comments (clear)

  1. What if your name doesn't come up? by Kagetsuki · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.).

    1. 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...

    2. Re:What if your name doesn't come up? by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.

      It's OK, the seats are bolted down quite firmly.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:What if your name doesn't come up? by FatLittleMonkey · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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"?]

      --
      Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
  2. Reliability by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Of course we all have unique names and faces and Google images contains only correctly tagged photos so this won't cause any confusion at all.

  3. 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 Trepidity · · Score: 5, Interesting

      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.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  4. First class by Paul+Townend · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the article, it says at the bottom: ""The Google Images search app helps our customer service team to recognise high profile travellers such as captains of industry who would be using our First class facilities enabling us to give a more personalised service."

    I think this is almost certainly something they're aiming at first class passengers only (probably as they approach the lounges at airports). I doubt they care that much about everyone in cattle class...

  5. Oh, great by Bill+Dimm · · Score: 5, Funny

    to recreate the 'feeling of recognition you get in a favourite restaurant'

    So, now the airline is going to spit in my food too?

  6. Not always a bad thing by Roger+W+Moore · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or what if it's the wrong person with your name?

    That's not always a bad thing - may be I'll get some free upgrades out of it! ;-)

  7. Wyndham did this to me to sell a timeshare by garcia · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.