Manufacturer Says Concerns About Airplane Cameras Are ‘Overreaction’

Big Brother is watching, even in the air.

And expect it to continue.

Airplane seat camera manufacturer Panasonic Avionics, responding to concerns about cameras in seatback television screens on planes, said there’s nothing to fear even though production on the screens – many of which have not been activated yet – will continue.

“I understand people are wary of technology, but I do think it was a bit of an overreaction,” David Bartlett, the company’s chief technology officer and chief information security officer, said in an interview with CNN Travel. “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.”

Cameras on the screens are a relatively new phenomenon in aviation travel but not widely shared, if at all, by the airlines themselves. That has brought more publicity to the installation of the cameras and fear among passengers that they are being spied.

There is also concern that airlines are mining data from the cameras, such as passenger activity – how long they sleep, how long they read, how long they play games, whether they watch the television and what they watch, and so on.

“When people conjecture that the airlines are using it to spy on passengers and collect data, okay that’s going to cause concern, but it’s absolutely not true,” Bartlett said. “To my knowledge, I do not believe there’s any airline using it for that purpose — we would never turn it on, it’s a set that we sell to the airlines.”

Panasonic Avionics said the cameras were installed in anticipation of changes in in-flight entertainment systems. The company noted that these systems sometimes need to last up to 15 years. Putting in all the bells and whistles now only behooves the company and the airlines for future use.

And what could possibly come from these cameras?

Bartlett said there are a plethora of options, including seat-to-seat video conferencing or to contact a flight attendant direct from your seat. In addition, a ‘mirror function’ could allow passengers to test out duty-free products such as sunglasses or make-up.

One possible option to quell the fears is to have a manual cover for the screen.

“I think that’s something that is an option and certainly if that’s going to give people peace of mind — because I think the cameras will have a use in the future,” Bartlett said. “So the scenario where you open up the camera cover and opt-in, and then use it for the feature and then, when you’re done, you can close it — there’s nothing more secure than that.”

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