UK's British Airways to Google Passengers Prior to Flight
British Airways is using new tactics to improve customer service.
UK airline British Airways has made waves with new plans to Google passengers so it can greet them upon arrival for their flight. Dubbed "Know Me," the scheme is supposed to provide passengers with a more personal experience when travelling with the airline. London's Evening Standard writes that British Airways staff will use Google images to find pictures of passengers so they can approach them as they arrive at the terminal or plane. "Know Me" will also check data held by the airline to determine if you've had problems on one of your previous flights (such as delays) so that the crew can apologise to you when they see you.
While some people appreciate the gesture (after all, British Airways is merely calling upon publicly available information to improve the quality of your experience with them), some aren't happy with the creepy factor. The Evening Standard cites Nick Pickles, director of privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch, as saying customers shouldn't have to deal with their airline snooping around for information about them on the internet.
"Since when has buying a flight ticket meant giving your airline permission to start hunting for information about you on the internet?," he's quoted as saying. "If British Airways want more information about us they can ask us for it, rather than ignoring people’s privacy and storing data without us having any idea what data they are storing."
However, British Airways says it is 'entirely compliant' with the UK's data protection act and that it's merely trying to improve customer service. "Know Me is simply another tool to enable us to offer good customer service, similar to the recognition that high street loyalty scheme members expect." BA said the Google Images search app will help the company recognise high profile travellers. In an earlier statement, BA said it was aiming to recreate the same recognition you might get when returning to your favourite restaurant.
How would you feel about an airline gathering this kind of information on you? Are you okay with, since it's publicly available, or do you think that it's a bit creepy, regardless of that fact? Let us know in the comments below.

mr. John: er... thanks
Clerk: Sit back, relax and congratulations on your garbage collector of the month award.
Young lady: hey, you told me you are the managing director at Bestofmedia Group!
Booking Agent - Yeah, cancel his ticket and say we double booked by accident
Booking Agent - Yeah, cancel his ticket and say we double booked by accident
The UK is a seriously messed up place in some ways.
mr. John: er... thanks
Clerk: Sit back, relax and congratulations on your garbage collector of the month award.
Young lady: hey, you told me you are the managing director at Bestofmedia Group!
It's all or nothing. If BA isn't happy to share this level of information, they should not expect their customers to be happy about it.
I pity someone like Salmon Rushdie - but less well-known - who writes a book that some segment of the population finds offensive. A single airline employee can easily make someone's life hell for several days. And can make it look like there was little recourse. The only thing BA passengers have going for them in this is that there are simply too many of them for the employees to get to know all of them at any level of detail.
That. I am all for keeping info private, but once you posted it online... it's not private anymore.
Would have been a problem if they started breaking into people's personal accounts... But not like this.
Google knows everything about you, if you wear womens underwear, if you like dog-porn, if you like anchovies - you sick wierdo
Yes, the information is public. But the fact that a chunk of public information is linked to a particular passenger boarding a plane is NOT public. The opportunity for abuse is just way too great. Let your imagination run wild, and you can bet that something even worse than you imagined will happen at some point.
The information may be public, and the employees can already Google you if they want (at least whoever books your ticket can), but this pretty much gives nameless employees the company-approved go-ahead to start snooping, harassing, stalking, or whatever the hell else they want to do.
Like many TH readers, I'm sure, I'm sensitive about my privacy and aware of the implications my personal actions can have on it. I, however, do not feel it is ethical for any company to give its employees approval to Google my wife all they want so that they can "greet" and "compliment" her when she arrives at the airport.
Call me paranoid, but I've spent enough of my lifetime on the internet to know there are sick and twisted individuals out there who will abuse any service they can for their own personal gain.
Most of us posting that are aware of that. Hopefully those who aren't aware begin to realize that the internet isn't really even a walled garden; it's just a big grassy field with some mountains that already existed on all sides, and everybody is romping in the fields. Don't be afraid of the internet, but don't be careless either.
Just how exactly are those pictures supposed to be useful as 300 people swarm onto the plane?
Perhaps at check-in they will ask you to verify google search results & images as belonging to you so that they can file that away into their database.
Zero value for the customer.
Now ask yourself what value massive databases on their customers will have for British Airways