Passenger-weight surveys, where they exist, are simply one small piece of that much larger effort.
So, if you ever see someone being weighed at an airport, it doesn’t necessarily mean the airline is judging passengers or introducing a controversial new rule.
More often than not, it’s part of a limited effort to collect anonymous information that helps ensure aircraft weight calculations remain as accurate as possible.
Sometimes the headlines make it sound shocking.
The real explanation is usually much more practical—and much less dramatic—than the internet would have you believe.