United Airlines wants to show you personalized seatback ads: Here’s how to opt out

On Friday, United Airlines announced that it is bringing personalized advertising to the seatback entertainment screens on its flights. The move is aimed at increasing the airline’s revenue by leveraging the data that it has on its passengers.



To do this, the airline formed Kinective Media , a media network that will handle the passenger data and sell ads to brands. Already United’s Kinective Media has made ad deals with brands including Norwegian Cruise Line, Macy’s, Chase, TelevisaUnivision, and IHG Hotels & Resorts.



United believes its advertising network will be appealing to brands because “there is the potential for 3.5 hours of attention per traveler, based on average flight time.” In other words: United passengers are a captive audience. Most turn to the seatback screen in front of them to help pass the time in the air—what else are they going to do?



To help assuage passenger fears that United ad partners will have free rein over their data, the airline has clarified that advertisers will not be able to access the personally identifiable information of passengers. Instead, the company will aggregate and anonymize the data of passengers over the age of 18 and supply that to advertisers.



Still, if you feel that you’ve paid for your ticket so why should you have to pay for it again with your data, you can opt out of United Airlines personalized ads. Here’s how:




Go to United’s opt-out page here .



Select the state you are a resident of.



Enter your personal details that United asks for, including your name, date of birth, phone number, and email.




After you’ve completed the form, United will process your opt-out request.



Worth noting: Some United passengers may not be able to opt out entirely. As the company’s opt-opt page explains, laws in the states of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and Utah may give residents more opt-out rights than laws in other U.S. states.



If you are in one of those other states, United will still let you opt out “to the extent applicable” under your state’s existing laws, if any.