Peekaboo, I See Your Spreadsheet
Privacy screens keep nosy neighbors at bay.
Illustration: The New Yorker
I don't use a laptop in flight, but I peek at everybody else's.
Okay, the first part is true. I don't own a laptop. But I actually do have a reasonably developed sense of privacy and am not the in-flight equivalent of the guy on the train who reads the newspaper over your shoulder to save a buck. But lots of other passengers are sneak peekers.
A recent USA Today article referenced a 3M survey of 601 laptop-using business travelers, 45 percent of whom admitted to actively sneaking peeks at other passengers' computer screens and 50 percent of whom said they'd caught other flyers checking out their spreadsheets, company memos, or movie selections, either in flight or in boarding-gate seating areas.
Shame, shame? Well, stay with us to see if you agree that this invasion of their privacy can be an invasion of ours as well.
These days, it's hard not to invade a seatmate's privacy. Coach cramming puts us pretty much in each others' laps anyway, and a glowing laptop screen is hard to ignore. Even harder when you're trying to nap and the cabin lights are dimmed. And hardest of all when Computer Boy is playing a game with the audio cranked up and no earphones.
Then there's the problem of passengers playing violent games and watching films on DVD that you'd just as soon your wide-eyed ten-year-old wasn't sharing. (Though most trips up the aisle after visiting the blue room reveal that witless Solitaire remains the favorite.)
The best defense? Become offensive. Make no secret of your fascination with your seatmate's laptop. It's what I do with loud public cell-phoners: stare directly at them, wide-eyed, hanging on every word. ("Do you mind???" "No, not a bit! I'm fascinated by your boss's ED problems!")
3M, once known as the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co., makes a wide variety of soft-plastic privacy filters that can be temporarily attached to a computer display to polarize the image in a way that makes it visible only to somebody viewing it directly. The Travel Insider has archived an interesting piece all about privacy filters, as well as many other posts on gadgets and equipment that they call "Road Warrior Resources."
Another option is physical screening, bellows-like tunnels that leave you looking like Matthew Brady peering into his view camera at the aftermath of Bull Run. They have the disadvantage of announcing to the world that what you're working on is very important and you don't want any Little People seeing it, but they do make your laptop screen as vivid as possible.
So whose privacy is being invaded? Mine or the laptopper's? What do you think?
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I fall into the pro laptop crowd. It is a great way to occupy those vacant hours stuffed into a plane seat. We watch movies, but are sensitive to content (G or PG13 only), and only with headphones.
I think we all need to remember we share the crowded cabin space, so no loud music/sound effects (video game beeping can make you crazy too!)
I am very afraid of when we are allowed to use Internet and cellphones inflight. No telling what type of trouble that will bring!
Please be considerate, and if you ask nicely, we have a 3 way headphone jack, so we may even let you share our movie for free! :0)
Posted by: lorib | August 28, 2007 at 08:51 AM
I'm reminded of the comedian Jon Reep. He said in one of his skits that "next time you're out in public and you see one of those guys talking way too loud on their cell phones, do this, gently walk up to them like this and then lean in and start listening to him. Then say 'What's he saying? Can I talk on it?' and then they'll say something like 'Excuse me! Can I have some privacy please?' and that's when you say, 'No. Cause you're in *public*.' That's how the system works. As it turns out there's no privacy in public."
I figure that laptops are awesome on flights and airports as entertainment and I really wish I had one. However, I don't think it's wise to be working on extremely sensitive things in public. I suppose if you have to, then getting one of those screens is a good idea. They really work, I had a guy I was sitting next to on a flight ask if I could see his screen and I couldn't. He had bought one of those screen covers.
Just don't expect privacy in public. Expect that people may look at your screen. And for goodness sakes, use headphones!
Let's hope they never allow cellphone use on flights. It's bad enough being in line at a store and having someone yapping away on one in front of you, imagine the same thing, except at 35,000 feet and nowhere to go to get away from them.
Posted by: tracker1312 | August 28, 2007 at 12:04 PM