Smile, you're on Big Brother's in-plane camera!

The folks in the UK aren't laissez-faire about this Big Brother thing one bit, them and Germany are throwing £25 million (bout $49 million US) at the "problem" of monitoring airline passengers with small cameras and microphones in every single seat back to monitor for suspicious behavior. The system will be able to detect rapid eye movements, excessive blinking, twitches, whispers or other symptoms of somebody trying to conceal something, and check the data against individual passenger profiles for alerting the crew to a potential terrorist. Airlines and privacy advocates aren't terribly stoked about the idea, with the airlines saying it'll take 10 years to outfit planes with such systems and the money would be better spent "on preventing terrorists boarding aircraft in the first place." Privacy people figure that "it will put people off flying because they will feel uncomfortable." However, Catherine Neary, the project team leader assures that under the Data Protection Act, all audio and video recordings will be destroyed at the end of each flight. That makes it all better, right?

[Via Smart Mobs]

[Adam @ Feb 14th 2007 1:27PM]

The problem with this kind of profiling is that it's not going to be able to tell the difference between the diabetic with low blood sugar level, the guy in seat 32A with a stomach virus or the girl in 49C with tourette or the guy in business class who's just found out his high school sweetheart and wife of 20 years has been sleeping with the pool guy. Machines are programmed by people and when people see a nervous person they rarely know why he or she are behaving the way they are. They ASSUME the person in question is up to no good.

[Nick @ Feb 15th 2007 6:49AM]

and indeed my girlfriend who is terrified of flying.
Our flights to American soil should be fun *rolls eyes*

[strider_mt2k @ Feb 14th 2007 12:17PM]

So that would make every child under say, 16 suspicious?

[boku @ Feb 14th 2007 12:26PM]

Man. I was going to renew my membership to the Mile-high club.

[Shane @ Feb 14th 2007 12:28PM]

Oh you have GOT to be kidding me...At what point has security just gone too far and gotten ridiculous? Cameras and microphones in EVERY seat? Automatically detecting excessive blinking, twitches, rapid eye movements and whispers? Comapring the data to profiles? Just KNOWING such a system was installed would send me into those kinds of behaviors.

What's next? Automatic cavity searches as soon as you sit down?

[s i d @ Feb 14th 2007 12:48PM]

would i be able to use the equipment to video chat with that hot girl in business class ... i need to shave now dammn >:)

[thom @ Feb 14th 2007 12:48PM]

Stupid thing ever,
and it probably doesn't even work at all.

[Michael @ Feb 14th 2007 1:23PM]

Shane, you are exactly right. Just knowing that I was being watched by a camera to see if I, and everyone else on the plane, were terrorists would make me do the things the camera is meant to detect. Forget about becoming overly paranoid. I just think this is getting ridiculous, it would be much more effective to put the money into preventing the terrorists from getting into the airport in the first place. I'm all for not dying when I fly, but I'd prefer not to be watched and listened to while doing so.

[James @ Feb 14th 2007 4:30PM]

Why not put the money into preventing terrorism in the first place? Terrorism doesn't just happen because someone has gone nuts all of a sudden. The root causes are there, it's just that our government chooses to ignore them because it conflicts with national (and sometimes personal) interests. How many less terrorists would there be had we not invaded Iraq? What did the American public gain from the war? Nothing! What did people like Chaney gain from the war? Millions of dollars. People hate us for a reason. They hate us because we send Israel laser guided bombs to kill innocent civilians in Lebanon and at then turn around and send the Lebanese humanitarian aid in the form of wheat. Similarly, who do you think created the Mujahideen in Afghanistan? Who armed them all these years? We did, to fight the Soviet Union. Things like this come back to bite us for a reason. It doesn't happen arbitrarily.

[JON BLAST @ Feb 14th 2007 1:36PM]

I think i had all those people on my flight back from DC last week. What a nightmare.

[Meltz; @ Feb 14th 2007 1:34PM]

from now on, on every flight i will start blinking like crazy, twitching, and whispering to the guy next to me.

[paul34 @ Feb 14th 2007 1:35PM]

It's great how companies (and governments) like to exploit people's fears. The plane thing has already been done (according to official reports), so why are terrorists going to keep doing it? It must be out of "fashion" now for those guys. They'll come up with something more creative. Spend money on better intelligence, not how to terrorize *your citizens* more.

[dfreccia @ Feb 14th 2007 2:01PM]

Couldn't this just be blocked with a jacket/newspaper/post-it note?

[Diddle @ Feb 14th 2007 2:05PM]

Isn't this an act of terrorism in itself?

To truly have terror-proof planes...

Naked Airlines - nobody will try sh!t when they're buck-nekkid.

...or...

Load that bad boy up with MF snakes - you move, the snake gets you.

[testMonkey @ Feb 14th 2007 2:24PM]

"...rapid eye movements, excessive blinking, twitches, whispers or other symptoms of somebody trying to conceal something..."

That's me, and I'm sure as hell trying to conceal something: that I'm scared to death of flying even without the threat of terrorists or someone watching me nervously pick a wedgie.

[Mile @ Feb 14th 2007 2:38PM]

Everyone wants to somehow be magically safe but without being watched. Just watch the bad guys. I'd rather governments remind people that the real world is a dangerous place and we could all take some personal responsibility to make it safer while understanding it will still remain dangerous. But as long as people expect the government to make every place safe, we will continue to have more and more monitoring.

That being said, privacy on an airplane is expected because...why? You don't like it, don't fly. It's probably too dangerous anyway when you think about it. ;)

[Kurtis @ Feb 14th 2007 3:09PM]

Great way of thinking! Yeah, next week I'm going to drive from Houston to DC. And when they start putting cameras on every sidewalk in America, I'm just gonna have to not use sidewalks anymore. And when they start putting cameras in public restrooms... oh well, who needs to use the restroom anyway?

Moron.

[mentalsticks @ Feb 14th 2007 7:37PM]

I'm not sure I find the world such a dangerous place. Have you ever been attacked by terrorists? neither have I. Nor have 99.997% of the population of the US (and thats a conservative estimate). It'd be better to spend the money on aids or cancer or any other thing that's a REAL threat to human life.

[Loonie @ Feb 14th 2007 2:40PM]

Hmm... I wonder what they propose to do once a suspected terrorist has been flagged?

[philipbarrett @ Feb 14th 2007 2:51PM]

I'm a regular on American Airlines & since their entertainment systems are still based on Hi-8 tapes I reckon I'll be dead & gone before this technology makes it into the cabin.

[Juice @ Feb 14th 2007 3:02PM]

This is not a good way to detect terrorists. How many people are afraid to fly and act weird while flying? I know I do. If it detects blinking though I think I'm safe because I usually don't blink once from take off to landing.

On the flip side it would be sweet to archive all flights videos to pull up info at any time on the net.

"Oh you say you just got back from Cancun? Let's watch the video of you on the plane." :)

[Timothy Frierson @ Feb 14th 2007 4:25PM]

I have to agree with most of the posts.This idea fits in with the "alles verboten,where are your papers,"mindset.

[glacia @ Feb 14th 2007 5:32PM]

"symptoms of somebody trying to conceal something" So the next time I fly somewhere with that hot girl in marketing I can no longer claim the hotel only had one room left?

[kakadu @ Feb 14th 2007 5:57PM]

Come on guys - its nearly April 01 - its a try on!!

Ask yourself - who watches while on board - who makes a decision to act - what could they do on board - when the plane lands, it's too late

think about it! its a cartoon!

[taylor @ Feb 14th 2007 10:51PM]

so there is a tv and a camera and a microphone then at the end of the flight they put the telescreen recordings in a memory hole.

well i guess it is ok if your name isnt winston and you don't love julia
can i still get some victory gin on this flight?

[ohp @ Feb 15th 2007 6:01AM]

What do you do when you've got an internal project that's not going anywhere? add the big brother angle, and leak it to the media. Voila. Attention for your company, and someone might be crazy enough to buy it.

I doubt if this setup will ever make it to the sky.

Imagine the scene:

"Could you swap seats with that sweet innocent little old lady there?"

"Why?"

"Well, your camera isn't working..."

Fact is, passengers and crew are alert to what hijackings might lead to now, so the main threat is from explosives. A supercomputer based suicide bomber detector is going to give you 10 seconds to deal with a bomb that you should have dealt with at the terminal.

[boosh @ Feb 15th 2007 7:20AM]

"Anyone who gives up a little freedom, for a little security deserves neither, and shall recieve none"

[LS @ Feb 15th 2007 12:57PM]

I guess we're all gonna have to be drinking some warm milk A-Team stylee before a flight just in case we get the jitters and end up being "violated" by an overzealous air marshals

i hate living in the UK sometimes

[StreetStealth @ Feb 16th 2007 12:40AM]

Creepy stuff like this is only the beginning.

If climate change doesn't do us in before the 2050s, I imagine we'll see a day when devices with cameras are more common than devices with batteries, and they'll all be wirelessly networked and constantly on the lookout for Canadian sympathizers following the English-Canadian war of 2063.

Whatever you do, just don't hang out under any maple trees.

[christoff @ Feb 16th 2007 12:35PM]

i don't know what everybody is so worried about. it's ridiculous, you are the paranoid ones. if you're not up to something sinister, what have you got to be worried about? maybe the rest of us would like to be protected, ever give that some consideration? grow up !!

[uberfu @ Feb 16th 2007 3:25PM]

"all audio and video recordings will be destroyed at the end of each flight. That makes it all better, right?"

Are they on Crack ?

[Jay @ Feb 20th 2007 11:20PM]

Search google video for "The Power of Nightmares".