Two major airlines admit 'disturbing' seat cameras on NZ flights

Oxman

Well-Known Member
Seat cameras maybe. But I am all for overhead cameras for the entire cabin.


47161



Singapore and United Airlines admit some local flights have cameras aboard.

Two major airlines flying to New Zealand have admitted some of their planes have small cameras pointing at passengers, but say they aren't turned on.
It comes after Singapore Airlines passenger Vitaly Kamluk earlier this month spotted one of the small cameras below the monitor of his in-flight entertainment system aboard a Boeing 787.
The tweet set off a flurry of debate on Twitter as to exactly what the "sensor" was.
Now Singapore Airlines and United Airlines have admitted their planes also carry some of the cameras after being asked by the Herald whether the cameras were aboard flights into and out of New Zealand.
Singapore Airlines spokesman Karl Schubert said some of the airline's newer in-flight entertainment systems had come with cameras built into them.
"These cameras have been permanently disabled on our aircraft since their installation and cannot be activated on board," he said.
"We have no plans to enable or develop any features using the cameras."
The cameras could be found in business, premium economy and economy class systems on medium and long haul aircraft, including A350-900s, A380s, Boeing 777-300ERs and 787-10s.

United Airlines said in a statement that along with many other airlines "some of our premium seats have in-flight entertainment systems that have cameras installed by the manufacturer".
"This is a standard feature that manufacturers of the system have included for possible future purposes such as video conferencing, however our cameras have never been activated on United aircraft and we have no plans to use them in the future".
Air NZ said its fleet of aircraft used Panasonic in-flight entertainment systems that did not have "integrated cameras".
 
Quite a few IFE systems are nothing more than modified tablet devices.

But I sure wish we had cameras in the cabin for a security and customer service standpoint.
 
I'm offended at the notion that someone could be watching me as I sit in a small, confined space with 160 other people.
 
I'm a big privacy proponent...but you're in a pressurized metal tube with literally hundreds of other people... this is dumb.
 
I first considered that my “smart” TV or IPad or phone might show the naked, fat, old guy sipping Martinis in the apartment with his dogs after reading a thread or two on Jetcareers. Maybe my car watches me. I don’t have a clue; honestly don’t care a whole lot about something I can’t influence or change.

Camel’s nose is under the tent, for sure (in my opinion), and no one is rolling back the technological clock to a different time - not at this point.

Of all the things they MIGHT watch, I’d feel sorry for the night crew that whatched me watch porn. They must have nightmares. Want to watch me pick my nose on a long flight ... ehhh ... enjoy. Long time ago, I worked for a security/alarm company on the midnight shift. They added a number of cameras (we thought) to watch one or two overnight dispatchers. If I worked alone and needed the restroom (in a different century no one considered that), I’d drop my drawers and moon the camera going into the “facility.” I wasn’t aware, initially, that the cameras were there to show potential customers the technology available to them. I still wonder, occasionally, who has seen my ass ...

Right or wrong, the cameras on every street corner or turned-on remotely on my IPad (ooo ... “turned on,” that fits with above, doesn’t it?), it’s the reality of our braver, newer world. One might pontificate, even long-for, the privacy which was lost; we stepped (maybe unknowingly) onto that slippery-slope a long time ago when we first signed-up for AOL or MSN (or whatever). Point is that we stepped, though, and started sliding; gaining certain things but losing some others of fundamental importance.

“You can’t go home again,” a long-ago author (who actually wrote) noted ... and I think Wolfe was right. We live where we are, not where we long to be.

“Make your mistakes, take your chances, look silly, but keep on going ...” (Thomas Wolfe, “You Can’t Go Home Again”)
 
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