Monitoring - a step too far?
The idea of installing microphones and cameras on aircraft has been floating around for years.
Recently, though, it was reported that the EU was funding research at Reading University, which will look into ‘suspicious’ behaviour on aircraft in Europe.
This is serious stuff, and means that the whole scheme could become active within a few years.
Typically the media lumped ‘Brussels’ or the ‘EU’ into one easy-to-slate word, but the fact that research is going ahead is the biggest step yet toward making advanced surveillance systems commonplace on passenger aircraft.
This begs the question of whether or not an aircraft should be a privacy free zone.
It would feature a combination of microphones, cameras, explosives detectors and a computer system which would give a pilot early warning of any danger.
CCTV systems which analyse passenger behaviour, using computers, are already in use in some airports around the world, but not on planes.
Most have a camera by, or in, the cockpit but now microphones would be installed and passenger conversations listened to. Any words or phrases heard that sounded suspect would then alert a monitoring system.
Explosives sniffers would detect a bomb being assembled in the toilets.
A computer would then analyse the information it received and tell the pilots if there was anything out of the ordinary.
Civil liberty groups have been outspoken about their opposition of this, saying passengers already face unacceptable intrusions and restrictions on their movements.
It does strike me that a person intending to commit an act of terror could use coded words, or everyday words, that would mean nothing to the listener and seem quite innocuous.
Would recording conversations on aircraft be a sensible approach to tackling terrorism, or is it just another poke at our civil liberties?
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Glenda Hinton, Kingston 24 June 2010, 07:07AM | |
| This sounds like a John Prescott joke. I am believer in safety and security but I do think that this is another, in a journey, of steps too far. | |
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Philippa Petty 24 June 2010, 12:03PM | |
| This sounds like an April 1st spoof to me.The next thing will be that classroom assistants will be drafted into look after us and stop us being naughty during the flight. | |
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David Wilkins, Sutton 24 June 2010, 12:35PM | |
| Ok, let us all blame the EU for an anti-terror measure.The question should be whether or not it is a good idea rather than who thought it up.Parts of this proposal, and I have read about it before, are quite sensible. The press generally pick up on the extreme ideas and the way that they will damage us. Question one: do I want to be monitored and to have my movement and conversations recorded and analysed? No I do not. Q2: do I want to be blown up by some religious nutcase on his way to seventh heaven? Most certainly not.If it comes down to a choice between the two impacts on my freedom and life, which do I reluctantly accept? | |
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John Daniels 24 June 2010, 02:34PM | |
| We are monitored pretty much everywhere else? This could prove to be an effective means of preventing terrorism on aircraft, ignoring the privacy, 'Big Brother' issues. | |
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Andrew Sims, London 24 June 2010, 03:35PM | |
| I think surveillance on aircraft is a brilliant idea. I wish all airlines would act on it. I don't think privacy is an issue here. If you are in public, you don't have privacy. Also, I would sacrifice my privacy ANY day for security. When I fly, I want to know that I am safe and that I will make it from point A to point B. | |
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Mary, Kent 25 June 2010, 04:24PM | |
| This is another decent step towards tightening the security ship. I agree that terrorists would potentially find ways around the monitoring cameras and microphones, but it will certainly make life more difficult for them. | |
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| Where will this end? I am not against monitoring or clever computers that look for out of the ordinary behaviour. I suppose that is similar to what happens at customs and immigration where officers look for nervous ticks etc. If it keep me save from terrorists that I am generally for this.However, and this is, for me, the big worry, will this technology be abused? We have already seen anti-terrorist legislation used to check up on parents trying to get their children into the best schools and even for people putting out their rubbish bins and bags. How do we know that this behaviour analysis will not be abused in this way.I do not like tax dodgers or benefit cheats and I think they should be brought to book but I am not sure that I want to see this level of surveillance technology used for that purpose. | |
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Erin, Essex 28 June 2010, 11:44AM | |
| This seem's like a step in the right direction. As Andrew say's if you are in public then we don't have privacy anyway and surely most sensible people would sacrfice their privacy for the sake of safety. | |
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Bradley T 28 June 2010, 05:16PM | |
| I would rather see more investment in airport security. It makes more sense to detect/stop the bad guys before they get on the plane in the first place. | |
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Martin, London 28 June 2010, 05:37PM | |
| Airlines and airports are where the government test drives it's police state technology and gets us used to having our privacy violated with extreme predjudice. People will put up with anything in the name of 'safety'. | |
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| This type of monitoring is not new. The research being funded by the EU at Reading University builds upon behaviour analysis that has already been introduced in some railway stations and airports in Germany and I also believe in Madrid.Cameras monitor human movement and the computer relates the captured information to patterns to detect the abnormal. Three people going into a lavatory or people staying there longer than expected are pretty typical patterns that would arouse suspicion.The microphone installations on aircraft form part of a a two stage stratagem. If people are detected as suspicious in the airport, they may be routed to special seating or special surveillance may be applied to those seats. For these people, microphones will pick up conversation for analysis either in the air or on the ground.Some of this technology has been fitted into AirBus pre-assemblies and is pretty much certain to become a reality.The cameras and microphones are pretty standard technology. The clever bit is the computer analysis and that is where the privacy / human rights issues will flare up. | |
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Gerald Philips, Sevenoaks 28 June 2010, 05:46PM | |
| I would have thought monitoring/detecting a terrorist when you're stuck on board with him at 35,000 feet may be a bit late. What are we going to do, have armed guards on the plane? | |
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Sarah Mills, Nottingham 29 June 2010, 11:50AM | |
| Public CCTV and other monitoring systems in general make me feel safe. In my mind an aircraft cabin is a public, not a private place and I have no 'privacy issues' there. It is certainly my 'human right' to feel safe on a plane. | |
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David Stone, Gravesend 1 July 2010, 04:56PM | |
| Yet another thing to raise passenger anxiety on a flight! Knowing that my every expression and word could be monitored on a flight with this 'Big Brother' technology does not sit well with me. | |
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Kate Garbutt, London 5 July 2010, 02:13PM | |
| I know this system means to lower passenger anxiety but I can't help find this creepy and nothing more! | |
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