British Airways Can Cancel Your Return Flight for Filming Crew With Meta Glasses
British Airways: Filming Crew W Meta Glasses Could Get Your Tickets Cancelled
British Airways has tightened its filming rules to target passengers who secretly record staff with Meta AI glasses. Wearing the glasses is still allowed, but using their cameras without consent now falls under the airline's conditions of carriage: BA can stop the recording, remove the passenger on landing, and refuse the remaining legs of a ticket, including a booked return flight. The author supports curbing intrusive content creators but warns the policy must not block passengers documenting genuine mistreatment.
I would hate to see a filming restriction become a convenient way to prevent evidence of poor treatment.
- twoodfin
I fly BA across the Atlantic every few months, and today for the first time the safety briefing included a specific callout of respecting privacy while filming aboard.
- karakoram
Amazing news! Something like this should implemented in all areas. What if my family and I are on the flight and I don't want them filmed?
I have heard the middle east has some very strict public filming laws, especially for women and children. Would be very popular globally!
- andy99
In the US anyway it feels like the battle for public spaces has been lost. Everywhere I go people are listening full blast to their phones with no headphones - I find this about 100x more obnoxious than filming. I think both should be banned with Singapore-style punishments but I expect even if companies posture about this nothing will happen. United famously prohibited using your audio without headphones but based on my trip with them last week that has done nothing. At this point it’s a societal problem that needs a tougher approach.
- otterley
There's nothing new here. European airlines generally prohibit filming the activities of their employees, regardless of technology. In fact, most of them (unlike U.S.-based airlines) try to anonymize their employees. They don't wear name tags, for example.
I've had this be a problem when I was trying to capture a FA's photo while disembarking the aircraft after he rudely chastised me for using the bathroom "too many times" due to a bladder condition.
- arjie
It's really unfortunate that to make the world visual-legible to a machine we have to permit recording in a high-fidelity format. I'd love to have an AI assistant perceive the universe around me and assist but I prefer to give people a measure of discretion in personal interactions. I've used the Meta Glasses in public, though, and they're really fantastic. You can ask about fish you can see, or you can capture your kids in a moment. Such a pity about this perhaps immutable property of life.
- jgrahamc
Seems fair; I won't speak to people wearing glasses with cameras in them.
- nagalluri
It's unfortunate that Meta Glasses found PMF with folks who want to nonconsensually record social interactions
- jjallen
My opinion (which is about filming in general, not the glasses) which seems to contradict others' but:
So if someone acts up and starts screaming it's suddenly ok to film, or even when people are committing crimes on board it's not ok? Who's to say when this is happening or not?
If filming is banned there will be less evidence for when this does happen, and people could get away with more crimes (although admittedly the bar is higher on a plane and the flight staff's testimony will carry lots of weight).
I think planes are public places (because 200 people are crammed into a tiny tube of metal) and your expectation of privacy should be diminished there. There are too many potential things that could happen on a plane. People are too close and vulnerable while on a plane. We cannot run or protect ourselves as well.
And as far as flight attendants, unfortunately they are at least partially responsible for both the safety and wellbeing of those on board. That is literally their job.
Banning filming of them will reduce their sense of urgency and responsibility, just like it would of cops if we were not allowed to film them.
There are just too many things that need to go right and also that could go wrong on a flight.
Just recently someone took a photo of an ostensible pedophile while on board conversing on a website for pedophiles and now the world knows. If all photography or filming was banned then this wouldn't have happened.