A passenger in one of the newest cruises of Royal Caribbean filed an action against the cruise line for fitting a secret camera to the bathroom of his cabin during a recent cruise. The federal court lawsuit stated that there was a violation of the rights to passengers’ privacy when they discovered the concealed camera.
According to the court filing, the plaintiff is anonymous; however, due to anonymity, the name and identification of the individual are not given. A Royal Caribbean cruise on board was from where the plaintiff found a secret camera installed in the bathroom. It is complained that the camera was placed in such a way that it could capture the private activities of the entrant into the bathroom. She reported the incident to the ship security team immediately, who took away the device and initiated an investigation. Yet, the passenger claimed that Royal Caribbean did not provide a safe or private environment on board the vessel.
The plaintiff’s attorney described it as “deeply distressing”, showing that the discovery of the hidden camera caused a serious emotional disturbance and the violation of personal privacy. According to the attorney, “Our client entrusted the cruise line with their safety and security for their vacation and all this trashed that trust.” Damages count includes invasion of privacy, emotional distress and negligence; arguing that Royal Caribbean did not do enough to prevent such an event from happening.
This plea also asserts that there were appropriate surveillance and security checks by the cruise line that would have detected such unauthorized devices in the guest cabins. The plaintiff argues that with such close, isolated environments as that of the cruise ship – in which guests expect a very high level of security and protection from such violations, Royal Caribbean should have taken much more care to ensure that the privacy and safety of the passengers were well covered.
The case has sparked wider concerns over how cruise ships guarantee privacy, given that passengers spend long hours in fairly enclosed environments. On one hand, this incident reflects how strict security measures and observation systems help maintain the personal space of ship passengers. Some have called for improved control and scrutiny of cruise ship security measures so this would never happen again in the future.
This lawsuit comes at a time when growing scrutiny across the industry, particularly on matters of health and safety amid the pandemic going on, makes it very problematic. It’s at a time that the industry is trying to rebuild travelers’ confidence and probably, cases like this one will only complicate efforts to restore confidence in the cruise industry.
As the case continues to advance, this will likely bring much attention to the greater problem of privacy issues in cruise ship passengers, as well as the obligation of a cruise line to provide safe environments for its customers. The case may have broad ramifications on the cruise line industry that could lead to changes in security procedures and enhanced regulation of guest rooms.
For now, it is the Royal Caribbean that is under scrutiny as far as how it handled the entire debacle, and the plaintiff wants justice for what they claimed to be a traumatic invasion of their private lives. Liability will be determined by the court, but the shockwaves that the case has sent through the travel industry make this point vividly clear: privacy and security are every traveler’s birthright.
