Seat-back Camera allows Airlines to SPY on passengers

[Bob]

How do you feel about being watched and your activity recorded by an airline while you fly?

Feel comfortable with that?

(From the Daily Mail)

A Singapore Airlines passenger discovered to his alarm that his TV screen on a recent flight with the carrier had a camera embedded in it.

While Singapore has said the camera is disabled, it's led some to speculate that other airlines might have the same system but with the cameras switched on. Or that in-screen working cameras could be used to spy on passengers during flights in the future.

Almost immediately, Singapore Airlines responded to Mr Kamluk to confirm it was a camera, but said it was not switched on and that there are no plans to use them as cameras.

The carrier tweeted: 'We would like to share that some of our newer in-flight entertainment systems provided by the original equipment manufacturers do have a camera embedded in the hardware."

Cameras are in our advertising billboards, in our smart home devices and on every second street corner, tracking our movements and slowly building up a picture of our lives in minute-by-minute real time. Add airplanes to the mix and you have a terrifying new way to calculate your social credit score. What happens on the way to Vegas doesn't stay in the air.

Air travel is changing. But it's going to be damn hard to replace visions of Frank Sinatra singing "Come Fly With Me" with a 24-hour live stream of screaming children hurling box casserole into their seat-back camera.

United airlines and Delta has confirmed that their "premium economy seat" do have cameras that can watch the passengers. (but the say they have never been activated)..

The logical reason is this they say:

These cameras are “a standard feature that manufacturers of the system have included for possible future purposes such as video conferencing” and the airline has “no plans to use them in the future.”

While video conferencing is not available on United flights, the feature is currently in use on some Emirates flights with Panasonic entertainment systems aboard, for first-class fliers.

American airlines says that the cameras may be used in the future to look for hand gestures, to control in-flight 'entertainment' (hmm let's not go there with specific hand gestures...... that describe how comfortable we are in these seats .....)

No doubt with the current software available for not only facial recognition, but now able to determine if a passenger "is about to commit an act of violence".. the excuses that the "cameras" are not active really says, "trust me and fly our friendly skies, we love your business" (or not).. do we believe that?

[Didgevillage]

Cameras (and microphones) everywhere. It has been known for some time that TV sets have a built-in camera and microphone which are on 24-7.
Satellites can zoom in on you once you're outside the house. (How do they know you've left the house? Smartmeter)
I suppose they target specific individuals, and everyone

[ramus]

There is a thread on this; 20th February 2019 14:53

https://projectavalon.net/forum4/show...ras-on-planes-

New Surveillance and Personal Security issue (cameras on planes)

Like the article below I guess they think we're that stupid
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Airplane seat cameras could be your new spy in the sky

Commentary: A camera trained on you for an entire long-haul flight? Surely you
can't be serious...

by
Claire Reilly

February 19, 2019 3:06 AM PST

https://www.cnet.com/news/airplane-s...spy-in-the-sky
/

[wnlight]

Nothing that a little chewing gum can't fix. :-)

[Bob]

In the OP (which makes this thread different than other threads) the question is asked what do people think about airlines having a potential to spy on the passengers, and to do so without them knowing.. That is the subject of this thread

How do you feel about being watched and your activity recorded by an airline while you fly?

Feel comfortable with that?

23 April 2019

US Senators are concerned too. What if a private conversation is happening between some congressional members who are flying business class? And the recording system is spying on them? Do they have a right to believe that their conversations are PRIVATE when on board public transportation?

Does that mean then to have a private conversation, members of Congress will have to fly by private plane? That sure would cost a whole lot more -

Senator Jeff Merkley is an Oregon Democrat and Republican John Kennedy, from Louisiana came up with a bipartisan letter which they sent to the Airlines this last March. They stated in the letter that they would insist that legislation be passed to ENSURE passenger privacy. This privacy would be insisted for domestic and international flights.

Passenger Privacy Protection Act of 2019 is the name of the Bill and it will contain wording which will cover that no airlines will have cameras or other recording devices that will be able to monitor passengers.

The senators addressed their original US letter to the CEOs of American carriers Delta, Southwest, Frontier, United, Spirit, American, JetBlue and Alaska Air.

The congressmen want to know whether each airline uses cameras to monitor passengers, under what circumstances the cameras could be activated and whether passengers are informed of this practice.

Merkley and Kennedy also demand "comprehensive data on the number of cameras and sensors" and "the type of information that is collected or recorded."

These international carriers were also queried: Emirates, Air New Zealand and Qantas.

With the trend to have potential spying tools mounted in the seatbacks of common carriers, such as Airlines, will similar (or do they already) monitor in the seatbacks of buses, or trains? During a long airline flight, there is sufficient engine and cabin noise that a passenger may feel "safe" to talk with the other traveler with them, in the seat next to them. Can these cameras also read what is happening on a laptop computer or a personal cellphone ? Are there more hacking tools present within the Cameras or other "Sensors"? The words used by the Senators included the word SENSORS.

Sensors can mean any device capable of monitoring electronic signals (as well as the assumption of 'just audio' or 'just video')..

source - CNN

PS: Belligerent Panasonic Avionics thumbs nose at the Senators, and the proposed security and safety while traveling law -

"I understand people are wary of technology, but I do think it was a bit of an overreaction," says Bartlett, who is also Panasonic Avionics's chief information security officer.

"I believe it's going to settle down, that the case to be made for positive benefits coming from cameras is stronger than any concern that they could possibly be used for nefarious purposes."

Bubble-gum or tape may work, if the airline doesn't cite "malicious mischief" - willfully damaging airline property has a penalty - possibly a 10,000$ fine and a Class C felony tag, which is punishable by a prison sentence of up to five years.

Traveling on an airline means one needs to recognize that there are Government Flight regulations, federal laws and the business of the airline. If they want to spy they can. The senators are worried about that..

[wnlight]

I don't like it when I think I am being spied upon. When I worked on above top secret projects so many years ago, I was told not to discuss related business outside of secured areas. Perhaps that rule should apply to congress and their aids also. Think about it. Perhaps there is some law passed to prevent such spying. Would I feel safe, protected by that law? Not on your life, would I. We have learned that government agencies act as if they are immune to the laws of the land. Mostly they are. We have also learned that there are various factions within the USA government with their own agendas.

OK, forget the chewing gum. Keep a small roll of easily removable tape with you. But think about this. The high technology now available would let the person sitting in the airline seat behind you easily tape your conversation.

[Bob]

Hi Warren - that is wonderful advice !

If it is secret don't assume that your airline flight is safe or secure for private conversation. Don't go using apps which allow you to sign-on to your bank account while anywhere other than through your own secure VPM (virtual private network) - and don't use phones or apparatus which have documented holes in the operating system or use "freebie-games" to occupy your time while you are waiting for your boarding call.

On a boat, a plane especially in "international airspace", the "rule of the land (or sea or air) is set by the Captain of the vehicle in which you are traveling. Whatever they want to facilitate their mission is the way it is. International law, maritime admiralty laws are different than one may expect within the boarders of let's say "western country's" laws. (Laws everywhere are being broken and re-interpreted to facilitate political views to go after those who embarrass the "authorities" as we have seen with Assange any whistleblowers).

Why are we seeing cameras (and not seeing many apparently) with advanced tracking ability? Who gets the information that the camera sees? Who is being alerted? Can an airline Captain say NO! to their employer and say NO the cameras and/or microphones and/or the wireless intercept devices will NOT be used today? Will they have their job?

Does anyone recall the term "the MINDER" ?

Before the spookware was so prevalent and that "anyone" these days can buy such, "the Minder" would be someone assigned to openly monitor a "person of interest". Usually the "minder" was there to openly remind the person of interest was being watched and guided not to see or travel or say certain things.. Usually the minder and the person of interest was shadowed by at least 3 others who kept out of sight and utilized the covert recording devices. (I had no less than 2 spooks who shadowed me when I traveled in Egypt in the late 1980's).

Consider that all places are monitored for any interesting information being discussed, be it economic related, trade secrets being discussed (and written on the proverbial "napkin"), in a nice "private spot" in the "garden", or heaven forbid discussed with the "cabbie" who is taking you from your airline to your hotel.. (have you ever noticed in UK and other countries the cabbies are so eager to ask you what is your business what are your political views are you abnormally "quiet" ??

Consider the "free food" that you get is laced with stuff to make you more talkative.. I had a most interesting experience in DC at an afternoon brunch with a CIA station chief who came back from Europe to visit his girlfriend. Everyone who knows everyone in DC is always having brunches, lunches, dinners and talking about everything - the gossip flows like wine... Anyway the fellow brought a fruit basket and it was delightfully seasoned with some of the standard "facilitating chemicals" to get one absolutely talking about what one was "most proud of". If you feel like you just HAVE to say something, what did you eat? What did you drink?

That the job of the minder and the tailing spooks is being eased by spyware should not come as any surprise. One does take the risks when traveling or being exposed to foods or beverages that you relied on someone else to supply. What is out there goes deep.

ref: CIA - https://www.cia.gov/library/center-f...2a09p_0001.htm

https://www.businessinsider.com/is-t...-serum-2014-10

"Trust me" drug - oxytocin - https://www.usnews.com/news/articles...rrogation-tool

we could put a pill in their coffee and cause their brain to be flooded with oxytocin. You're not getting a truth serum, but you're getting them to trust you."

[Mind Control, Biometrics Could Change the World]

In a way, interrogators already use oxytocin to get detainees to trust them. By being nice to them, offering them coffee, or getting them food, they're stimulating oxytocin production

"Dosed with Trust Me" --- and let the cameras/microphones just whir away.. hmm

[RedX]

Practicing good OpSec/ComSec has always been the best course of action.