Little-known ‘shoulder-surfing’ we all do on the plane – despite it being annoying

THE frustrating travel faux-pas that annoys holiday-goers has been dubbed “shoulder-surfing” and apparently we are all guilty of the annoying offence.

New research has revealed that jet setters run the risk of getting caught with many confessing to committing the little-known act.

Getty

Getty

Passengers have revealed the appeal of sneaking a peak at other people’s in-flight entertainment which is easy and simple to carry-out with little risk and a sky-high reward.

Associate Professor in computer science at the University of Glasgow Mohamed Khamis revealed all to The Washington Post .

Whilst studying privacy and security implications of technology, he has discovered that people often “underestimate” how often others could be “spying on their screen”.

He said: “This is something that’s been around for a long time.

“Even when people were reading books and newspapers and stuff, people would also look at each other’s content.”

A PhD student supervised by Mohamed, Habiba Farzand, explained how public transport can be a hot-spot for “ shoulder-surfers “.

With airplanes offering seated passengers an array of screens within their eyeline and often long distance journeys with little distraction, travellers may find themselves struggling to avoid staring.

Many have taken to social media to express their frustrations at being a “shoulder-surfing” victim.

One user on X, formerly known as Twitter, commented: “I have zero sympathy for nosey shoulder surfers.

“It’s incredibly rude. It’s weird that should surfing on a plane is kind of expected but people don’t make it obvious anywhere else.”

Whilst another said: “Getting just off the plane , preventing shoulder surfing seems like a need.”

Others however admitted to enjoying the travel faux-pas.

Someone on X posted: “There’s a man on my plane reading a HOLBY script and I plan to spend the entire flight shoulder surfing for spoilers.”

Another said: “We can do soooo much on a plane : first and foremost sleeping, reading a book, watching a movie, shoulder surfing on our neighbour and so much more.”

One person commented: “It’s ok! I was should surfing everyone on the plane anyways.”

Responses to the risk of shoulder surfing have also been found to alter people’s behaviour.

The research conducted by Mohamed and Habiba has found that flyers may dim their screen, tilt devices away from others or turn their electronics off altogether.

A popular Reddit post revealed last year that a frequent-flyer felt the need to turn on closed captioning on their choice of in-flight film, “in case someone else is watching my screen”.

It comes after flight attendants revealed all the common passenger behaviour that “drives them mad”.

From using the call button when the seat-belt sign is switched on to trying to grab their attention when only a few rows away.