A UK-based airline is facing criticism from privacy advocates over a new plan which allows staff members to identify customers by using a new computer system to search Google for images of them, according to various media reports published Friday.
According to John-Paul Ford Rojas of the Telegraph, British Airways cabin crew, check-in staff, and first-class lounge employees will be able to use the technology in order to meet and greet specific travelers.
It’s called the “Know Me” system, he said, and the company told him that the goal was to be able to put together a name and a face before the customer arrives in the airport.
“The aim is to give the airline a more personal touch when serving important passengers, such as chief executives of financial companies, who may not be instantly recognizable by British Airways employees,” Rojas said. “The carrier already identifies such passengers on each flight but until now staff would not have known what they looked like until they checked in. Now they will be able to approach such clients proactively.”
“The program is able to send messages with information about specific passengers to the iPads of customer service agents and senior cabin crew or update check–in staff via the airline’s computer system,” he added. “The system also identifies data on passengers who may have encountered problems in the past so that they can ‘go the extra mile’ for them… The airline aims to send 4,500 such ‘personal recognition messages’ a day by the end of this year.”
Their motives might be innocent enough, but the program is raising the hackles of some privacy advocates.
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