Slashdot Mirror
American Airlines Has Cameras In Their Screens Too (buzzfeednews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from BuzzFeed News: A viral photo showing a camera in a Singapore Airlines in-flight TV display recently caused an uproar online. The image was retweeted hundreds of times, with many people expressing concern about the privacy implications. As it turns out, some seat-back screens in American Airlines' premium economy class have them, too. Sri Ray was aboard an American Airlines Boeing 777-200 flight to Tokyo in September 2018 when he noticed something strange: a camera embedded in the seat back of his entertainment system. The cameras are also visible in this June 2017 review of the airline's premium economy offering by the Points Guy, as well as this YouTube video by Business Traveller magazine.
American Airlines spokesperson Ross Feinstein confirmed to BuzzFeed News that cameras are present on some of the airlines' in-flight entertainment systems, but said "they have never been activated, and American is not considering using them." Feinstein added, "Cameras are a standard feature on many in-flight entertainment systems used by multiple airlines. Manufacturers of those systems have included cameras for possible future uses, such as hand gestures to control in-flight entertainment." After Twitter user Vitaly Kamluk saw a similar lens on Singapore Airlines and tweeted photos of the system last week, the airline responded from its official Twitter account, saying the cameras were "disabled." Still, the airlines could quell passengers' concerns by covering the lenses with a plastic cover, if indeed there is no use for the camera.
American Airlines spokesperson Ross Feinstein confirmed to BuzzFeed News that cameras are present on some of the airlines' in-flight entertainment systems, but said "they have never been activated, and American is not considering using them." Feinstein added, "Cameras are a standard feature on many in-flight entertainment systems used by multiple airlines. Manufacturers of those systems have included cameras for possible future uses, such as hand gestures to control in-flight entertainment." After Twitter user Vitaly Kamluk saw a similar lens on Singapore Airlines and tweeted photos of the system last week, the airline responded from its official Twitter account, saying the cameras were "disabled." Still, the airlines could quell passengers' concerns by covering the lenses with a plastic cover, if indeed there is no use for the camera.
My craptop has a camera and I'm not paranoid about some NSA prick somehow watching me take a shit while catching up on the latest VanossGaming video. Joke's on them if they do.
We ached for video phone calls for decades, but now that it's dead-easy we're all monkey about it. Grow up, humanity. Nobody cares about your mundane life.
In a world of the blind, the one-eyed man is king--and the two-eyed man is a heretic.
I've worked in in-flight entertainment (IFE). I can say that yes, the hardware is generally shared by multiple airlines. However most Tier-1 airlines will push for, and some will demand completely custom feature sets and UIs for their entertainment systems. The IFE business is about being able to say yes to what the airlines want now, and being able to predict what they want in the future, and delivering it on schedule. The most important (and backwards) thing is that the airlines drive the requirements for these systems, So if the airline says "it was just what was available" then that's false -- if they really didn't want a camera, there wouldn't be a camera. Period. There's a lot of other potential privacy related concerns with in-flight entertainment too. There's various ways to for the IFE system to be able to greet you (especially the premium seat customers) when you arrive and sit down, such as "Hello Mr. X, would you like to request your usual beverage before takeoff?". Know that the airlines want to track what you're watching too -- mostly in aggregate so they can keep the most popular stuff around, but I'm sure it won't take them long to try to personalize that for you too (because, clearly passengers want that, right?). The airlines are all about monetizing IFE systems, just like everything else about flying. Things like forced ads are the beginning. Personalizing the ads to you as a next step.