ian001

I suspect there is a little more to do this than something as random as a Google search by airline that carries 30m+ pax a year and it would be interesting to know what exactly is behind this (I'm sure it is well intended).

Hotel chains do certainly use social media tools to research their guests, but it has not been universally welcomed:

http://loyaltylobby.com/2012/05/27/i...-and-linkedin/

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...mn-westin.html

dodgeflyer

I think it is a bad idea; and borderline privacy invasion (yes, don't enter the internet if you have an issue with privacy and all that...). I stayed at one of the top hotels in HK, and I am relatively young so I guess that what caused the interest: a day after checking out or so I noticed that one of the staff had checked out my LinkedIn profile - I almost sent the hotel an e-mail telling them off. If I were to find out that BA did this to me (my picture is not on any public profile) I would consider changing airlines.

elitetraveler

The lesson is if the site doesn't let you control who can see your profile, don't post it. If the hotel wanted to, they could have made their 'searcher' profile anonymous.

DillMan

Utterly odd.

I somehow don't see ground staff and cabin crew following this religiously.

wind-blownmind

Well I have the great misfortune of sharing my first and last name with a noted white supramacist, who even briefly appeared on the FBI's 10 most wanted list for murdering a judge (that was a fun period of time to cross the US border...) so you can guess what sort of things come up when you put me into google.

On the topic of hotels profiling their guests, for a special occasion I once spent a night at a very swanky hotel in London, and found within about 10 minutes of checking in that staff I had never seen before were addressing me by name. Now I suppose if you're either a celebrity or the type of person who has servants (and those are exactly the types this hotel seems to be designed for) you might be used to this or even expect it. Not me though - it creeped me right out. I suppose I must have been surreptitiously photographed during check in and the picture posted up in the staff areas. Not a place I will ever go back to (even if I could afford it.)

MNManInKen

Honestly, some people have no common sense. To provide a more personalised experience based on my BAEC profile and past exchanges with BA - fine. If they want to offer me the option of uploading my pic to my BAEC account, that's also fine.

But to use pictures from Google or social network profiles is bound to create a lot of problems. A lot of the pictures/info they get will be for someone else or simply wrong. I can't see it going down well if they mistake you for someone else or talk to you about things nothing to do with you.

I'm sure it looked like a good idea to someone, but it's clearly a fatally flawed concept and one more likely to annoy people than to please them.

1010101

Isn't everyone who passes through T5 photographed by the UKBA and probably somewhere on entry to the boarding gate? I know privacy laws exist but to what extent can BA get their hands on those pictures?

Crampedin13A

Hope the picture they have of me is after I've showered and left the Arrivals Lounge.

They certainly won't find a picture of me on Google or any social media sites.

colmc

BA better hope their passengers don't share names with some porn stars, or their searching may end up with someone violating the IT policy

Cradders

Personally, it wouldn't bother me too much: My BAEC account is linked to a work email address that I don't use for personal social networking (such as Facebook). It would be very easy to trace me to my company, or indeed through Linkedin without a great deal of effort, though.

However, given that I have set the privacy on my account to only allow people to see my basic information (i.e. my job title, place of work and thumbnail picture), I wouldn't be too bothered if they searched for me.

To me, the lesson is that this kind of activity looks likely to be increasingly common in a lot of consumer service type businesses. If you're going to use social networking sites (and that's a big if), then one should go in with their eyes open and ensure that they protect the information they don't want accessing correctly.

MNManInKen

While I can't be too bothered about what happens to my picture taken there, they would certainly breach data protection legislation if they handed it to BA for this service.

layz

That's correct, and the images are supposedly destroyed within 24 hours (or at least they used to be, it could have been silently changed) but them sharing the images with BA would be just asking for legal trouble.

fife

Would it not be significantly more reliable for BA to simply ask those who wish to, to upload a photograph to their BAEC account?

But frankly, I don't need or want my ego massaged by those who get me from A to B. I want them to serve me a drink with a smile, and then get out of the way.

thundercat

Perhaps its just a way to allow cabin crew to surf the net during work hours like most office workers ;-)

Its a gimick that will likely pull up the wrong person!

_________________
Get Out & Get Wet

origin

Ahh this is why BA seem to have so many Daily Mails's. So they are able to recongise the Duchess of Cambridge and her sister.

OR by the same paper.. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...-pictures.html Maybe not the pics some crew should be looking at!