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Delta says it plans to block websites it deems “inappropriate” when it rolls out its new Wi-Fi service.  The service will be available on selected planes later this year and on all of its flights in 2009.  The airline’s original plan was to let flight attendants handle any issues, but they changed their mind and will now be using a software solution.  Like American Airlines, they will also block VOIP service to avoid customer complaints of passengers making loud phone calls.

The Wi-Fi service will be provided by Aircell’s GoGo service, and they said they have no problem filtering content if requested.  Privacy experts, not surprisingly are critical of the idea, fearing it could open the floodgates for outright censorship.

“It’s so easy, once that precedent is set, to broaden ... the kind of information blocks that might be imposed,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “For one thing, it won’t prevent passengers from looking at inappropriate material stored on their own laptops, but it also opens the door to blocking of other content, such as news or political opinions.”

Delta claims the filters are only meant to block pornographic websites and prevent a passenger from using the service to download movies, which would significantly degrade the service for his fellow travelers.  In those cases filtering makes sense.

But the big question is, how far may an airline go?  Does a foreign airline have the right to block political sites that criticize that airline’s government?  Will a domestic airline have the right to block a consumer website that posts complaints about it?  It’s these types of questions that have privacy advocates concerned, and perhaps rightly so.  As of now, only time will tell.

Read[PCWorld]