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While soaring high above the clouds sounds like a complete dream to many, taking the plane is not everyone’s favourite past time, especially frequent fliers. And now those lucky individuals checking into business or first class with British Airways can expect a privacy invasion too. BA’s rolled out its ‘tailored’ service where it’ll actually google you to create a dossier on each of its passengers.
While operating the “Know Me” programme is apparently in the best interest of customer service, British Airways has caused a bit of a stir among those who value their privacy. BA staff are set to google images of passengers so they can identify them, and check out their past flight, where they’ve been, whether they’ve asked for more vodka — that kind of thing. Much like Google itself, the purpose of the programme is to hold a wealth of data of experiences that the customer has with the airline, and then to turn that into a more rewarding customer service. But unlike the search giant, BA’s approach sounds a bit, er, grim. I don’t think I’d want an airline, of all businesses, to be googling my details on the internet; checking out photos of me, and keeping it all on file. That said, the service mostly applies to those with a big media profile, so you can rest easy if you’re just a regular Joe making the most of first class.
Either way, getting to sleep on a plane is already a pain in the arse — I’d rather not have this looming over my head too. [Evening Standard]
Image credit: Boeing 747 from Shutterstock
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See now if they could link this to Google Now, and my G+ profile, then that might not be such a bad thing – just put BA in a Circle and share what I want with them!
This sounds like a stupid way of doing it. Just issue all your First & Business class passengers with a Card, that allows them to get their frequent flyer miles and access to the first class lounge and track them through that, like the supermarkets do for us peons.
Well they’ll have to because Passbook isn’t accepted anywhere yet
Why would you be worried about a company Googling you when any tit with a computer can do exactly the same thing? If the thought worries you, don’t put anything embarrassing on the internet – simples.
whilst this is worthwhile advice, it is not the point of the article.
The point of the article seemed to be that there was something creepy about a company Googling for “dirt” on you.
Why you would be worried about a company, with all its legal obligations, collecting information on you when that same information is available to any old kook with an internet connection is beyond me.
because Dr, a company, by definition is “an association or collection of individual real persons and/or other companies”. I.e. other people, now.. You could say “well anyone can just Google you”, but that isn’t entirely true, only people that know me (e.g. my name, address, DOB etc) can truly dig up “dirt”, so handing the reins of pre-emptive seclusion to a service is indeed a bad idea. Take for example bribery.
You may be willing to let other people on this planet make irrational judgements to “protect” you, but I’ve not been asked nor would I consent and that dear Dr is my right.
I’ll reiterate my point – why would you be worried about BA searching for information that’s already in the public domain when there are many, many companies that know an awful lot more private information about you? They’re all governed by the same laws.
Also, it’s surprisingly easy to find out people’s details on the internet, especially when they use a unique username…
to me there is a difference between need and necessity. it is more of a question of should they be doing this as responsible companies just because they can (sure anyone can, you could google me but then so could a company like Future; but then Future have more information on me in the first place, so they would probably have a head start). is it necessary for them to undertake this in order to deliver their service and do you as a customer want them to do this? sure, you’ll sign the t&c that it’s buried in, but doesn’t mean you really agree with the practice.
it is more of a bigger picture thinking about whether we want companies to start with this kind of thing. where will it lead. as people talk about the erosion of civil liberties others will always take the ‘if you ain’t got nothing to hide’ attitude. i believe it is more of a case of just because you can, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t.
TL;DR – Yes there is something more worrying about a company doing this than some old kook. It should be obvious.
My view is that if you don’t like a company’s business practices, don’t use them.
I share the same view, but if there are no objections to their practices it sets a precedent for other businesses to follow suit and by the time you have no alternative but to use the company it’s too late. Needless to say, you know in your heart of hearts what is right and what isn’t.
People said the same thing about the offshoring of call centres – the cost savings meant that every company would do it and the consumer would have no choice. As it turns out, people hated them so much that companies realised that it was more profitable to bring them back to the UK.
If consumers have the same objections to their personal data being collected you’ll see the same thing – it’s just a question of how much economic value people place on it.
It’s difficult to compare the two cases but let’s roll with it. Company’s offshored their call centres which affected the level of service provided rather than preventing access. What BA are doing is engineering our environment in the pursuit of making it “safer” and “more enjoyable” for us, also giving them an opportunity to determine their clientele for “security reasons”.
There is an old adage, Don’t try to fix what isn’t broken.
My fear, may be unfounded as you believe, but still a real fear for me, is that it will become a widely accepted practice and before you know it all will become unfavourable customers based on averages.
I was thinking in terms of economics. There’s little perceived cost to consumers in having their personal details collected by companies. As soon as anything happens to change that (abuses of information, excessively homogenised services etc…) then pressure will grow for it to change.
I don’t think BA are off target with this one. I reckon most passengers in business and first – the only classes targeted – welcome personal touches to make the travel experience less gruesome.
As someone who travels long-haul in business quite frequently, I can say that simple attention to detail (such as a stewardess who remembers your drinks order, etc.) goes a long way to alleviate the sense that you’re nothing more than cattle being freighted in a pressurized tube, wedged into wipe-clean seats, and forced to use a prison toilet for fourteen hours. This is especially important if you have to go straight into a meeting when you arrive at your destination.
It’s no more sinister than KLM’s ‘Meet & Seat’ system, which aims to seat like-minded passengers together based on analysis of their Facebook and LinkedIn profiles.
The old adage prevails – if you don’t want your data mined, don’t publish it.
Presumably if their search turns up that you’ve been publicly lambasting their data-collecting, they will courteously empty your records and pretend they don’t know anything about you?
Frankly, I don’t really see what the issue here is. No one’s asking you for your Facebook log-in so they can scour through your timeline, this is all information that is already available online and that everyone has access to, along with information that they record themselves and are perfectly entitled to keep.
But first and foremost this is a service, one that you’re paying for. This isn’t like casinos internationally tracking swindlers, or employers screening you for your drunken antics in university, or advertisers tailoring their output for your demographic.
If you’re afraid that they’re going to use that information for evil, well… why is that info publicly available in the first place? This is stuff that anyone could keep on file, without your knowledge, just because they want to.
BA, on the other hand, just want to know how you like your drinks. The worst-case scenario is that they’ll screw up their research and put ice in your whisky when actually you never drink your whisky with ice. Oh no.
How can this possibly work? I mean, if you Google my name you just get pictures of balding men and the occasional toddler. None of which are me. Heck, there’s even a cyber man helmet in there too.