A Viral Airplane Video Sparks Serious Questions About Filming Other Passengers

Getty Creative Is it wrong — or even illegal — to film other passengers while traveling? Raymond Ku, a professor of law at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, told HuffPost that airplanes are generally considered a public space, since “you’re in there with lots of strangers, as a result you wouldn’t necessarily have a reasonable expectation of privacy.” But Ku — whose areas of expertise include constitutional law, cyberlaw, privacy and copyright — cautioned that it depends on what is being filmed. “If it’s something that is visible and is available for everyone to see — or even a large group of people in the area to see — I doubt you have any reasonable expectation of privacy there.” However, Ku said, there “should be a good argument” of an intrusion of privacy if someone is secretly filming someone else engaging in a more commonly private activity, such as nursing a child or having a personal video chat. Baldwin said that after first considering whether a video was recorded lawfully — i.e., not secretly filming someone in their home — what you then do with that video “still matters.” He said that if you decide to share the video, you should be aware of the policies on the platform you’re uploading it to as well as defamation laws or whether the video has been edited in a particular way, among other considerations. Please stop.’” Smith said that you should try to move away from the person who is filming you without consent and look for assistance from “powerful others” — meaning people who are in charge, like flight attendants or restaurant managers.