United Airlines Covers Inflight Entertainment Cameras Over Privacy Concerns

United Airlines' Polaris Cabin in a file photo. United Airlines

A major American airline will conceal the camera built into its inflight entertainment system in response to privacy concerns.

United Airlines will cover all camera lenses built into the back of plane seats to address fears passengers may be secretly recorded throughout their flight.

The cameras are included as a standard across many inflight entertainment systems, but the carrier says it does not enable passengers to use them, according to Fox News.

“None of these cameras were ever activated and we had no plans to use them in the future,” a United Airlines spokesperson told Fox.

The airline explained the cameras were installed with the intention to one day offer a new webcam service.

“The cameras are a standard feature that manufacturers of the system included for possible future purposes such as video conferencing,” the spokesperson said. “However, we took the additional step to cover the cameras.”

Singapore Airlines addressed similar concerns in February, when a passenger questioned the carrier’s motives behind having a hidden camera in the inflight entertainment system.

“Just found this interesting sensor looking at me from the seat back on board of Singapore Airlines. Any expert opinion of whether this a camera? Perhaps Singapore Air could clarify how it is used?,” Vitaly Kamluk said in a Twitter post on Feb. 17.