In what they call an effort to stop terrorism, the EU wants to install surveillance cameras on airplane flights.

Those people who plan to go off for a week in the sun could have their conversations and movements monitored while they’re flying due to a European Union project going ahead. The plan has alarmed civil liberties campaigners, who fear further growth in the surveillance state.

As usual, opinions are divided. Some air passengers see additional surveillance as interfering with their privacy, a sort of last line pushed in by regulations. Others say they have nothing to hide so it would not worry them personally.
Everyone has something to hide. Everyone. To suggest otherwise is, at this point either naïve or stupid.

The EU project is aimed at tackling terrorism, by analyzing the way passengers behave in a bid to isolate potential bombers or hijackers when they’re already on board. At the moment, surveillance on planes is mainly limited to a CCTV camera near the cockpit.

Behavior that the system will eventually be able to pick up includes sweating, moving around the cabin in an erratic way, and repeated visits to the toilet. Dr. James Ferryman insists it will distinguish between potential terrorists and nervous flyers.

This is, of course, if they even have someone manning the cameras in the first place. The logistics of having someone watch every single flight in the EU is astronomical and not economically feasible. In all likelihood, such an implementation would not be viewed in real time. It would, instead rely on a computer program designed to detect your behavior.

What a computer can’t decide is that the person is going to the bathroom to throw up repeatedly because they could be pregnant or have an anxiety to flying that causes them to vomit. Someone might have diarrhea. What are they supposed to do with the cameras? I suppose the response from the EU would be to sit and soil themselves repeatedly so they aren’t labeled a terrorist by some sterile computer system.

“It treats everyone as a suspect, and that completely contradicts one of the main tenets of democratic law, which is that everyone is innocent until proven guilty,” proclaimed the spokesperson for NO CCTV, Alex Tabor. “Continuing surveillance, mass surveillance – be it video, communications, whatever the many ways that seem to be creeping forward – completely goes against that.”

Every single person that has any sort of travel anxiety is going to be affected by this. You’re already treated like a criminal through the numerous checks on the ground. Now, suppose you fear flying. You’re sitting in your seat, trying not to vomit and freak out because you’re of this fear. Well, now you can add the extra fear that you’re going to be fingered as a terrorist because of it.

And what if they do identify you as a terrorist thousands of feet in the air? Are they going to turn back? Are they going to wait until they land to take you into custody and interrogate you? What, exactly is the point? If you truly are a terrorist and have managed to get past the numerous security checks that are supposed to stop you before you board the plane, what use is identifying you then? If the plane turns back, you simply start your “terror” prematurely and if they don’t turn back, you proceed with your plan as usual.

So this plan for CCTV really accomplishes nothing other than more security theater and to put fear into those who are already anxious to begin with.