FlyerTalker68098

Questionable actions by the person who took the photo and tweeted it but highlights the caution that must be taken when working in public.

Perhaps a good advert for a privacy screen on the laptop!!

CMK10

Hardly a questionable act, there's no reasonable expectation of privacy on a plane. Don't want someone to see it? Don't have it visible in such a public space.

gfunkdave

Exactly. This is why companies fit their laptops with privacy screens in the first place.

And let's put this in TravelBuzz, since it's not really tech-related.

LondonElite

I'm not really sure what that blob reveals...I've seem plenty more interesting stuff relating to upcoming merger deals.

GregWTravels

I was once on a train heading to a client to present our bid for some work, and the two people sitting in front of me opened up their laptop and started running through a presentation for the same work as me. Sadly, their work was very good and less expensive.

As we'd already submitted our written proposal, there wasn't any opportunity to change anything. However, at least I could talk intelligently in the debrief when my boss asked, "how did we lose this one?"

LondonElite

I like looking at people when they talk loudly into their phones about a particular deal and pretend to take notes...

Ber2dca

What would the ethics be if you are on a plane and there's a guy working for a competitor sitting in front of you, screen in your field of vision, and he's working on something that ideally would stay within his company.

LondonElite

I'd use it to my full advantage. There can't be any more expectation of privacy on a plane than on a bus or a hotel lobby. I almost never work on sensitive information while flying.

CMK10

It's probably unethical but it's certainly not illegal.

LondonElite

True, but ethics/moral high ground and investment banking have never really been close bedfellows!

CMK10

Or with lawyers

RadioGirl

@:-) "Please check the seat pocket for any personal items before you leave the aircraft." @:-)

I once boarded a flight and found a plastic sleeve full of documents in the seat pocket. Looked like plans for an business expansion, projected cost/income targets, that sort of thing.

Fortunately for the guy who left it behind, (a) I'm in a completely different line of work, (b) it had his name and phone number on the plastic sleeve, and (c) I was able to give it to a FA who got it to a GA, probably in time to page the guy before he left the airport.

This was a short route where the same aircraft flies back and forth all day. I can understand forgetting on a long-haul if you'd put it in the seat back hours ago, but it seems kind of irresponsible to have forgotten about it on a 40 minute sector.

jaysona

That is called competitive intelligence - no ethic issue there at all.

EuropeanPete

We could debate the ethics, but there are relatively few sectors and countries where it could be argued there is "no ethic issue there at all" to using accidentally exposed competitive intelligence to gain an advantage.

I guess you may consider yourself a superior businessman, but I'm pretty sure that others better than you exhibit much stronger morals.

pinniped

I've worked for 3 different large firms where competitive bids were standard practice: we would *not* use accidentally-gained nonpublic competitive intelligence in our bid. In fact, depending on the circumstance, we might quarantine the person who accidentally received the information. (e.g., Take them off the bid team.)

Sounds draconian and almost backwards, but if you use the information you're just setting yourself up for a bid protest if you win. Clients ranged from midcap to large cap traded firms to government agencies, nearly all of whom have audited and regimented procurement processes. Maybe in a startup environment things are different...