It's bad enough that passengers can use phones until the door closes.

I remember taking a flight from Washington to New York and the passenger sat next to me used his phone constantly for about 30 minutes whilst we were waiting to leave the gate.

What made it more irritating was that he was making several calls for the same reason, so I heard the same conversation repeated over and over again.

On phones generally, it amazes me who indiscreet people can be in public. I regularly travel to London on the train, and have overheard passengers talk about colleagues, clients and competitors - leaving themselves and their employers exposed to, at the very minimum, considerable embarrassment and loss of a client.