Blockchain in the airline industry

22

October

2017

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Blockchain is a technology that is mostly associated with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum and countless more. The blockchain technology used in cryptocurrencies, is in essence a decentralized database or ledger that enables the transaction of tokens of value. These tokens of value can be generalized to represent money, data or anything else you can imagine. The major benefits of Blockchain include that the database cant be hacked and has an uptime of theoretically 100%, as the technology is distributed among many computers (tnooz, 2017). Until now, Blockchain technology is mostly used within the financial industry. However, there are many different industries where the Blockchain technology could be applied like for example the Airline industry.

So lets discuss some possible applications of the Blockchain technology in the airline industry that go beyond the exchange of money. At first, tickets of flights can be tokenized by an airline and sold to consumers directly, therefore avoiding electronic marketplaces. Smart contracts could enforce the terms and conditions as well as the payment procedure of the ticket purchase. Beyond that, the airline industry is famous for their loyalty programs. The loyalty program could also be tokenized so that consumers have instant access to their loyalty points and could use them for different airlines that have partnerships. Furthermore, security of information such as crew information, flight manifests and passenger records is vital to the airline industry. Blockchain is beneficial here, as it cant be hacked easily, because the technology is distributed among many different computers that disconnect in case of a breach. Therefore, the Blockchain technology would be ideal for managing and sharing information. At last, the blockchain technology could digitalize maintenance logs that hold information about airplane parts, reparations and any other detail. This would improve maintenance, aircraft security and safety within the airline industry. (Accenture.com, 2017)

The Lufthansa Group is the airline with the highest investment in Blockchain, as they are invested in the Swiss start-up Winding Tree. This start-up wants to create its own digital marketplace for travel in the B2B segment. If successful the Blockchain technology would allow the airline to bypass the middleman and sell directly to the customers, using the Blockchain technology. (Skift, 2017)

 

Work Cited

Accenture.com. (2017). The Potential of Blockchain for Airlines – Accenture. [online] Available at: https://www.accenture.com/nl-en/insight-potential-blockchain-technology-for-airlines [Accessed 14 Oct. 2017].

Skift. (2017). Lufthansa Partners With a Blockchain Provider in an Investment Worth Testing. [online] Available at: https://skift.com/2017/10/10/lufthansa-partners-with-a-blockchain-provider-in-an-investment-worth-testing/?utm_campaign=Early%20Time%20Zone%20-%20Skift%20Daily%20Newsletter&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=57229739&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_n1NefmKFHQ8yl5ic0buTWZd7fM_cWl8DgqVISndYIslVJ1Z52qL_H7hpV0TbL4eYbWgLFp5CJERXyDQChf-XAr5y54g&_hsmi=57229739 [Accessed 14 Oct. 2017].

tnooz. (2017). The what, why and how of blockchain in travel. [online] Available at: https://www.tnooz.com/article/applications-of-blockchain-travel/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2017].

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Does the internet allow more privacy than a totalitarian regime?

14

October

2017

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Does the internet allow more privacy than a totalitarian regime? In order to tackle this question, let us first consider privacy in a regime such as communist East Germany.

After Hitler was defeated in 1945, Germany was divided into four parts among the allies Britain, France, America and the Soviet Union. This lead to the separation of Germany into east and west. Britain, France and America together formed the democratic Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) in the west and the Soviet Union founded the communist Democratic Republic of Germany (DRG) in the east. The major part of the population of East Germany did not support the communist ideology though and consequently wanted to escape to west Germany (Hopkins, 2017). In order to ensure that the population of East Germany was controlled the Stasi, a secret service and secret police, was created in 1950 (Hignett, 2017). In essence the Stasi was an espionage organization that ruthlessly monitored and controlled the activities of East Germans. The methods used ranged from tapping phones to opening the mail of citizens that were considered to be an opposition to the DRG. The Stasi had up to 91,015 full time employees and a network of 189,000 unofficial collaborators (Bstu.bund.de, 2017). The fall of communism in 1989 lead to the dissolvement of the Stasi in 1990 (Hignett, 2017). To set the magnitude of surveillance into context, 35 million documents, photos, sound documents, and tapes of telephone conversations were released for public viewing after the Stasi was dissolved (Hignett, 2017).

Now let us consider the situation in the internet.

Online presence on social media is obviously important to people. Both, men and women, try to make their physical appearance as nice as possible, display information regarding birth date, relationship status, religion, address and many more. I would even go as far as saying, social media now days consists of platforms that should replace identity and personality. This allows anybody to access basic information about you already. Many users in social media are also not aware of extensive privacy settings to protect themselves. This makes them extremely vulnerable.

Furthermore, simple advertising tools such as cookies which track your online activity, can also be used to expose your personal internet queries. Most people don’t know that cookies should ideally be removed every time you access the internet. Therefore, internet users are vulnerable again. (Roswell, 2017)

It is not hard however for Hackers to get even more information about you. Just recently, credit rating agency Equifax was subject to a major data breach by Hackers that left 145 million Americans exposed. It was the biggest data breach in the history of hacker attacks. Social security numbers, birth dates, telephone numbers and, in some cases, driver’s licence and credit card numbers were stolen from people who willingly provided this is information to the web. This highlights that anybody can steal from you in an internet context. (BBC News, 2017)

This brings us to the following conclusion.

Espionage methods under the Stasi were extensive and thus infiltrated the personal life of the East German population. However, the Internet is different to the extent that it does not monitor and interrogate you to gain information. Instead you as an individual provide the data to the internet which allows third parties, such as Hackers, to get more information about you. Most internet users access the web to find information on anything ranging from a puppy picture to the most intimate search. Google therefore knows the most intimate searches a person would potentially not even tell his wife. In contrast the Stasi had to interrogate individuals to find information that some might not be willing to share. Therefore, privacy in an internet setting is far more exposed than it used to be under the Stasi.

 

Work Cited

Bstu.bund.de. (2017). BStU  -  What was the Stasi?. [online] Available at: http://www.bstu.bund.de/EN/PublicEducation/SchoolEducation/WhatWasTheStasi/_node.html [Accessed 14 Oct. 2017].

Hopkins, R. (2017). A glimpse of life behind the Berlin Wall. [online] Telegraph.co.uk. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/expatlife/11570669/A-glimpse-of-life-behind-the-Berlin-Wall.html [Accessed 14 Oct. 2017].

Hignett, K. (2017). ‘Everything about everyone’: the depth of Stasi surveillance in the GDR.. [online] The View East. Available at: https://thevieweast.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/everything-about-everyone-the-depth-of-stasi-surveillance-in-the-gdr/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2017].

Roswell, C. (2017). How Social Media Sites Invade Your Privacy – The VPN Guru. [online] The VPN Guru. Available at: https://thevpn.guru/how-social-media-invades-privacy/ [Accessed 14 Oct. 2017].

BBC News. (2017). Is privacy dead in an online world?. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-41483723 [Accessed 14 Oct. 2017].

 

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