Originally Posted by MSPeconomist

As I see it, it could be good customer service for cabin crew working in FC to google passengers in advance or during the flight, for instance to facilitate making a bit of small talk or to help to remember names. The cabin crew have access to the manifest and thus know the names of every passenger associated with their seat assignments.

However, to me it seems inappropriate for a member of cabin crew to look up the passenger on LinkedIn, FB, etc. AFTER the flight. Once the passenger has deplaned and left the airport, it's hard to see how their details could be of legitimate professional interest to the cabin crew or how this could have a business purpose for the airline. There might be very rare exceptions due to some in flight issues, perhaps checking the passenger's dietary restrictions if a big fuss has been made over the inadequacy of a special meal, where the cabin crew want to follow up appropriately. Another exception could be if there's information that the same passenger will be on some specific future flight where the cabin crew will be working, but this would fall into the BEFORE/DURING travel category, which is different IMO.

As I see it, except for exceptionally rare exceptions, cabin crew should not record or remember and then look up the names of their past passengers. There's an enormous difference between looking up a passenger's profile before or during the flight in order to provide bettter service--even if it just helps cabin crew to remember names or address the person appropriately--and using the information for the cabin crew's curiosity after the flight. I assume that cabin crew aren't permitted to take manifests from their previous flights home with them for personal use; this seems to be what happened here.